# 7.1. The base class - base.bbclass

## 7.1. The base class - `base.bbclass`

The base class is special in that every `.bb` file inherits it automatically. This class contains definitions for standard basic tasks such as fetching, unpacking, configuring (empty by default), compiling (runs any `Makefile` present), installing (empty by default) and packaging (empty by default). These classes are often overridden or extended by other classes such as `autotools.bbclass` or `package.bbclass`. The class also contains some commonly used functions such as `oe_runmake`.