How to get gps.h into a Yocto recipe build?

I've built a simple recipe which works as long as I don't need gps.h:

recipes/foo (dunfell) $ cat foo_3.0.0.bb 
DESCRIPTION = "FOO Daemon"
LICENSE = "CLOSED"

SRC_URI = " file://*.* \
    "
S = "${WORKDIR}"

INSANE_SKIP_${PN} = "ldflags"
INHIBIT_PACKAGE_DEBUG_SPLIT = "1"
INHIBIT_PACKAGE_STRIP = "1"

do_compile() {
    cd ${S}/src
    make
    cp foo ~/
    cd -
}

do_install() {
    install -d ${D}${bindir}
    install -m 0755 foo ${D}${bindir}
}

gps.h is in /usr/include on my local machine, but as Yocto is cross-compiling it provides a reasonable explanation of why it can't use the local /usr/include/gps.h:

cc1: error: include location "/usr/include" is unsafe for cross-compilation [-Werror=poison-system-directories]
foo.c:54:10: fatal error: gps.h: No such file or directory
   54 | #include <gps.h>
      |          ^~~~~~~
cc1: all warnings being treated as errors

I've tried IMAGE_INSTALL_append " libgps-dev" and " gps-lib-dev" in my layer.conf but neither of those work.

How can I get the gps.h header into my Yocto project/recipe at build time?

Solution

Let me copy your recipe and add some comments first:

DESCRIPTION = "FOO Daemon"
LICENSE = "CLOSED"

# --- COMMENT ---
# It is not recommended to use "*" with SRC_URI, 
# as Yocto will not keep track of your files if you edit them 
# so it will never rebuild automaticall after a change
# Best practice is to sepecify the local files like:
# SRC_URI = "file://src"
# This will make bitbake unpacks the "src" folder into ${WORKDIR}
# --- COMMENT ---
SRC_URI = " file://*.* \
    "

# --- COMMENT ---
# The ${S} variable is the defautl workind directory for compilation tasks, 
# do_configure, do_compile, ..., 
# So, if you have "src" folder that will be unpacked into ${WORKDIR}
# you need to set S to that:
# S = "${WORKDIR}/src"
# --- COMMENT ---
S = "${WORKDIR}"

INSANE_SKIP_${PN} = "ldflags"
INHIBIT_PACKAGE_DEBUG_SPLIT = "1"
INHIBIT_PACKAGE_STRIP = "1"

# --- COMMENT ---
# If your project has a "Makefile" you can use the "autotools" class
# it runs oe_runmake automatically
# inherit autotools
# If you want to copy the output to your home directory you can do it in "do_install"
# If you use autotools you do not need do_compile
# --- COMMENT ---
do_compile() {
    cd ${S}/src
    make
    cp foo ~/
    cd -
}

do_install() {
    install -d ${D}${bindir}
    install -m 0755 foo ${D}${bindir}
}

# --- COMMENT ---
# Do not forget to specify your output files into FILES for do_package to work well
# FILES_${PN} = "${bindir}/foo"
# --- COMMENT ---

Now, after dealing with that, if your recipe requires something at build-time, than the dependency needs to exist in the same recipe's workding directory, because if you are adding libgps into IMAGE_INSTALL it will be present in the rootfs but not during your build time.

So, to do that, you need to specify the dependencies recipe with DEPENDS.

I have looked for gps.h and I found it packages with gpsd recipe.

So, try:

DEPENDS += "gpsd"

So, the final recipe would look like the following:

DESCRIPTION = "FOO Daemon"
LICENSE = "CLOSED"

SRC_URI = "file://src"

S = "${WORKDIR}/src"

DEPENDS += "gpsd"

inherit autotools

do_install(){
    install -d ${D}${bindir}
    install -m 0755 foo ${D}${bindir}
    cp foo ~/
}

FILES_${PN} = "${bindir}/foo"

The only thing left is to test.