BitBake is a make-like build tool with the special focus of distributions and packages for embedded Linux cross compilation, although it is not limited to that.
It is inspired by Portage,[3] which is the package management system used by the Gentoo Linux distribution.
BitBake existed for some time in the OpenEmbedded project until it was separated out into a standalone, maintained, distribution-independent tool.
Recipes consist of the source URL (http, https, ftp, cvs, svn, git, local file system) of the package, dependencies and compile or install options.
As a first step in a cross-build setup, the framework will attempt to create a cross-compiler toolchain suited for the target platform.