Bug 14140

Summary:	variable flags starting with underscore are silently ignored
Product:	[Build System, Metadata & Runtime] BitBake	Reporter:	Yann Dirson <ydirson>
Component:	bitbake	Assignee:	Michael Opdenacker <michael.opdenacker>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	Medium	CC:	poky.bs.watcher, poky.watcher, randy.macleod
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	4.2 M1
Hardware:	x86
OS:	Multiple
Whiteboard:
OS type for building Yocto:	---	Type of Regression:	---
Verified:		Documentation change:	Yes (doc changes required)

Description Yann Dirson 2020-12-01 14:01:47 UTC

VAR[_a] = "foo" (or any underscore-starting flag name I tried) does not trigger a warning or error, but a subsequent getVarFlags("VAR") call never shows those flags starting with underscore.

If it is a limitation I'd think we should document it and add a warning or maybe even an error.  But then it's maybe just a bug :)

Comment 1 Randy MacLeod 2020-12-03 15:41:42 UTC

This is expected behaviour, the _ is for internal usage but should documented.

Comment 2 Randy MacLeod 2021-04-22 17:51:36 UTC

Michael, Could you check if this expected usage limitation is in the docs and if not, add it?

Comment 3 Michael Opdenacker 2022-09-21 13:33:33 UTC

Indeed, the behavior remains the same.
I posted a patch to document this:
https://lists.yoctoproject.org/g/docs/message/3200

Comment 4 Michael Opdenacker 2022-10-28 13:33:45 UTC

Now fixed in master:
https://git.openembedded.org/bitbake/commit/?id=0f3e9d87168813ce49995ff04bccdce11c5f7b47