Re: [docs] should the dev manual "libraries" sections explain "oe_libinstall"?

On Tue, 16 Jun 2026, Antonin Godard wrote:

> On Thu Jun 11, 2026 at 1:26 PM CEST, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> >
> >   while the "Working with Pre-Built Libraries" section:
> >
> > https://docs.yoctoproject.org/dev-manual/prebuilt-libraries.html
> >
> > explains the "oe_soinstall" utility, i see nothing anywhere in the
> > docs that explains the similar "oe_libinstall" utility, for which
> > there are a few examples scattered around, such as mtd-utils:
> >
> > https://git.openembedded.org/openembedded-core/tree/meta/recipes-devtools/mtd/mtd-utils_2.3.1.bb
> >
> >   does this deserve a mention?
>
> Yes please

after a quick check, maybe it's not worth documenting this utility
-- google AI suggests the following:

  oe_libinstall is a legacy shell helper function in the OpenEmbedded
  / Yocto Project build framework used to install a library and all
  its compiled variants (such as .a, .so, .la, and .lai files) into a
  specified destination directory.

  Historically, it was primarily utilized during the do_stage task
  (which has since been deprecated) or inside custom do_install tasks
  to automate the handling of multi-format library files.

  ...

  If you are writing modern Yocto/OpenEmbedded recipes, you should
  avoid using oe_libinstall.

  The Modern Way: Standard build systems like Autotools, CMake, or
  Meson handle library generation and staging automatically via
  oe_runmake install.

so is it still worth documenting something that is legacy and
deprecated? or would it make more sense to upgrade the recipes to not
use this utility anymore?

rday