Hi,

We are starting a new project using Yocto to build a custom Linux image which matches our needs.
We are new to Yocto and still trying to figure out the best way to work with it.

Especially, if it is best to cross-compile or to build on a VM running an image of the target.

Some background:
Our target system is x86_64, and we are all working on x86_64 computers obviously.
For now, we don't have yet a physical target system so we are running the image generated by Yocto in VirtualBox or VMWare.

For practical reasons, since not all developers use the same OS (Windows, macOS) we decided to do all development work on Linux VM (Debian distribution) so everyone has the same system.
For now, we are cross-compiling applications using Yocto SDK in that Debian VM, copying it to the Yocto VM to run it.
Even though copying/deploying and running them could be somehow automated, since we are developing on a Linux VM anyway, I thought it could be best to build a Yocto image (maybe as an additional "dev" image based on the existing one) which contains all tools we need (gcc, cmake, etc.).

This way, we could execute the binaries (in particular the unit tests) locally.
For some of our unit tests in particular that we run at build time, it sounds easier to run them locally, compared to deploying them and running them remotely.

Any thoughts about this?

In advance, thanks a lot for your help.

Best regards,
Arnaud