# 7.14. Building kernels - kernel.bbclass

## 7.14. Building kernels - `kernel.bbclass`

This class handles building Linux kernels. The class contains code to build all kernel trees. All needed headers are staged into the `STAGING_KERNEL_DIR` directory to allow out-of-tree module builds using `module.bbclass`.

This means that each built kernel module is packaged separately and inter-module dependencies are created by parsing the `modinfo` output. If all modules are required, then installing the `kernel-modules` package installs all packages with modules and various other kernel packages such as `kernel-vmlinux`.

Various other classes are used by the kernel and module classes internally including `kernel-arch.bbclass`, `module_strip.bbclass`, `module-base.bbclass`, and `linux-kernel-base.bbclass`.