Registries are published
base and common are the registries
These 2 registries are what contain all the recipes. The recipes are the identity of how a package gets built, and what it is. It contains (always) the name, version, and release number, as well as usually a source tarball, an origin URL, and a sha256sum for validation.
What is base?
base is the registry of the floor. Everything needs to build against something. base is what builds against base entirely by itself. With a copy of base you can make a new version of base without requiring anything else. Fully self-sufficient bootstrapping, is what this gives you.
What is common?
For now, common is just everything else. There's no need to copy all of base into common because repositories can stack, and the build system and package management don't care where packages live. Having the split makes bootstrapping easier.
At some point in time common may become unwieldy, or disorganized. We'll solve that problem when we get there. For now, there's no problem with there being 2000 or so recipes in common. Everything works just nicely.
How do I use this?
These will become useful once the images are published. The images will allow you to setup and build your own packages or even your whole distribution. At that time the build system uses these 2 registries.
--sofar (aka Auke)