doc: beyond-gsg: notes for sdk package managers

Include notes in the Beyond the Getting Started Guide doc for
those who wish to build redistributable files for package
managers (e.g. APT, RPM).

This does not mean that Zephyr will be responsible for
creating collections of .deb or .rpm packages for the Zephyr SDK.

These are only some guidelines based on previous experience in
that area.

Signed-off-by: Chris Friedt <[email protected]>

doc/develop/beyond-GSG.rst

@@ -404,6 +404,56 @@ Depending on the topology of build infrastructure, it may be preferable to simpl
 the ``/opt/zephyr/sdk/$VERSION`` directory to neighboring build machines. Alternatively, use
 ``/opt/zephyr/sdk/$VERSION`` to create packages for the package manager of choice.
 
+.. _gs_package_managers:
+
+Guidelines for Package Managers
+===============================
+
+For those who wish to create redistributable packages from the Zephyr SDK and Python dependencies,
+please follow the general guidelines below. These guidelines support multiple simultaneous
+installations of different SDK versions side-by-side, which can be helpful when building for
+different Zephyr releases or when evaluating new Zephyr SDK releases.
+
+Assumptions:
+
+* A UNIX-like operating system (e.g. Linux, macOS)
+* The shared installation location is ``/opt/zephyr/sdk/$VERSION``
+* The version of the Zephyr SDK installed is represented by ``$VERSION`` (e.g. 0.17.0)
+* A Zephyr toolchain component by target architecture is represented by ``$TARGET`` (e.g. ``aarch64``)
+
+Suggested packages:
+
+* ``zephyr-sdk-$VERSION``:
+
+  * a top-level package that pulls in other all other packages for a given Zephyr SDK release
+  * does not install any files directly
+  * optional, but recommended for ease of use
+
+* ``zephyr-sdk-$VERSION-base``:
+
+  * the base layout for the installed Zephyr SDK version
+  * includes files under ``/opt/zephyr/sdk/$VERSION``
+  * limited to cmake rules, scripts, version files, etc
+  * does not include toolchain components
+  * does not include host tools
+  * does not include Python virtual environment
+
+* ``zephyr-sdk-$VERSION-pyenv``:
+
+  * the tree structure under ``/opt/zephyr/sdk/$VERSION/venv``
+  * a time-based snapshot of all required python packages for a given Zephyr SDK version
+
+* ``zephyr-sdk-$VERSION-hosttools``:
+
+  * the host tools for the installed Zephyr SDK version (if applicable)
+  * includes files under ``/opt/zephyr/sdk/$VERSION/sysroots``
+  * for hosts without complete host tools support, this package may be empty
+
+* ``zephyr-sdk-$VERSION-toolchain-$TARGET``:
+
+  * the ``$TARGET``-specific toolchain component of Zephyr SDK ``$VERSION``
+  * includes files under e.g. ``/opt/zephyr/sdk/$VERSION/$TARGET-zephyr-elf``
+
 .. rubric:: Footnotes
 
 .. [#pip]