[OE-core] recipe design curiosity: how to best install a package configuration file?

[Ankur Tyagi]

what if sample file is updated in new version? Now you have to maintain the
copy in your "file/" as well.

If you are using sample file as it is, then keeping a copy is probably not
a good idea

Cheers
Ankur

On Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 12:04 AM Robert P. J. Day <rpjday at crashcourse.ca>
wrote:

>
>   got into a discussion yesterday about the "cleanest" way to design a
> .bbappend file to install a package's configuration file, so i'm
> curious about best practices, and here's an example. (and i'm asking
> as it looks like this will be an issue for a number of recipes i'm
> looking at.)
>
>   current recipe for conntrack-tools:
>
>
> http://cgit.openembedded.org/meta-openembedded/tree/meta-networking/recipes-filter/conntrack-tools/conntrack-tools_1.4.5.bb
>
> note how the recipe install step installs a conntrack.conf.sample
> file:
>
> do_install_append() {
>   install -d ${D}/${sysconfdir}/conntrackd
>   install -d ${D}/${sysconfdir}/init.d
>   install -m 0644 ${S}/doc/sync/ftfw/conntrackd.conf
> ${D}/${sysconfdir}/conntrackd/conntrackd.conf.sample
>   ...
>
> so far, so good. now, in cases where a sample conf file is provided,
> there is, of course, no guarantee that it will be applicable out of
> the box -- one *expects* that it might be necessary to tweak such a
> file and install it as part of a .bbappend file. and here's the point
> of contention.
>
>   in this current situation, it turns out that that sample conf file
> just happens to be appropriate, so the entire .bbappend file for this
> recipe consists of:
>
> do_install_append () {
>     install -m 0644  \
>     ${D}/${sysconfdir}/conntrackd/conntrackd.conf.sample \
>     ${D}/${sysconfdir}/conntrackd/conntrackd.conf
> }
>
>   yes, that will work, but i suggested that, even though it's
> convenient, the problem with that approach is that looking at the
> .bbappend file doesn't show you the contents of the file that will be
> installed. to see the actual conf file, you'd have to peruse the
> source, or check the final result ... you get the idea.
>
>   i suggested that, even though the sample file in *this* case was
> perfectly appropriate, i would choose to make a copy of it under
> files/, and install the conf file from *there*, the advantage being
> that the actual file being installed is immediately readable.
>
>   does anyone have any strong opinions on this? it seems mundane, but
> i think the latter approach is still superior, especially since i
> suspect most sample configuration files would have to be adjusted,
> anyway.
>
>   thoughts? just trying to collect some best practices to apply to
> this project.
>
> rday
> --
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