Section 3.4.1 of BB manual:

https://docs.yoctoproject.org/bitbake/bitbake-user-manual/bitbake-user-manual-metadata.html#locating-include-and-class-files

"BitBake uses the BBPATH variable to locate needed include and class
files. Additionally, BitBake searches the current directory for
include and require directives.

... snip ..

"In order for include and class files to be found by BitBake, they
need to be located in a “classes” subdirectory that can be found in
BBPATH."

  first, is BBPATH not used for finding conf files as well? and the
wording of that second paragraph suggests that include files need to
be in a classes subdirectory to be found, which i'm pretty sure isn't
true.

  thoughts?

rday