Concepts
1. Layers
MFEXT is staged in logical and/or technical layers. Some of them are optional, you can choose not to install them (for example, layers about Python2). Each layer contains one or several components.
For example, here are some layers hosted on this repository:
python3_corewhich contains several core components for Python3:python3,pip,virtualenv...python3which contains several additional components for Python3:requests,psutil,filelock...openrestywhich contains:openresty,lua_restry_http,lua_resty_cookie... componentsnodejswhich contains only one package:nodejs- [...]
You can inspect installed layers with the layers utility.
Note
If you want more details about the "layers system", please read the corresponding documentation about layerapi2.
2. Components
Most of theses components are not maintained by the MetWork Framework team. For example, you will find inside a recent Python interpreter or some well known libraries like CURL or GLIB2.
You can inspect installed components with the components utility.
3. Add-ons
This repository holds a lot of layers but you will also find extra layers in MFEXT addons repositories. Let's mention in particular mfextaddon_scientific which provides some layers with a lot of geospatial and scientific tools.
An add-on to MFEXT can be maintained by anyone and can be hosted anywhere. But there are also some officially maintained add-ons and you can use them exactly in the same way with the same level of quality/management.
You will find more details about add-ons (and a list of them) in the dedicated documentation page.