[Buildroot] [PATCH] boot/uboot: add option to define custom dependencies

[Thomas Petazzoni <thomas.petazzoni@bootlin.com>]

Hello,

On Sat, 25 Apr 2020 23:13:50 +0200
"Yann E. MORIN" <yann.morin.1998@free.fr> wrote:

> My opinion on that patch is that i am definitely not in favour of it. If
> we go that route, then we would have to allow adding any such arbitrary
> dependencies to a wide range of packages.

Without necessarily strongly supporting Heiko's patch, I think it is
important to keep in mind that U-Boot is not a package like any others.
We offer version selection for U-Boot, custom Git/Subversion repo
selection, which we do not offer for other packages. U-Boot has
zillions of forks, support for gazillions platforms each with their own
funky requirements.

We've already added a BR2_TARGET_UBOOT_CUSTOM_MAKEOPTS to pass custom
make options, adding the possibility to add custom dependencies would
go in the same direction.

I however agree that this kind of option is a good recipe for people to
do their own hacks on their side, instead of finding a proper way to do
it that can be upstreamed to Buildroot.

> Now, there are two situations:
> 
>   - the tool is already in Buildroot: add a new _NEEDS_FOO option like
>     we already have.
> 
>   - the tool is in a br2-external tre: this is in my opinion better
>     served by working on the evaluation-postpone changes Arnou and I
>     have been suggesting for quite a while now.

I think it would make sense to hear about what Heiko's use case exactly
is, this might help.

Thomas
-- 
Thomas Petazzoni, CTO, Bootlin
Embedded Linux and Kernel engineering
https://bootlin.com