Bug 4454

Summary: There should be simple way to update image, when changing external fs skeleton
Product: buildroot Reporter: Alexander <fenixk19>
Component: OtherAssignee: unassigned
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX    
Severity: enhancement CC: buildroot
Priority: P5    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: 2011.08   
Hardware: PC   
OS: Linux   
Host: Target:
Build:

Description Alexander 2011-11-04 20:16:02 UTC
There should be simple way to update image, when changing external fs skeleton.

If you make changes in external fs skeleton, you don't need full OS rebuild, just some repacking. But there is no obvious way to do it.
Comment 1 Danomi Mocelopolis 2011-11-05 02:28:35 UTC
(In reply to comment #0)
> There should be simple way to update image, when changing external fs skeleton.
> 
> If you make changes in external fs skeleton, you don't need full OS rebuild,
> just some repacking. But there is no obvious way to do it.

On a few of our projects, we made added a "refresh" target that did:

- rm -fv $(BUILD_DIR)/.root $(BUILD_DIR)/*/.stamp_target_installed

- force the target skeleton copy done when making the "$(BUILD_DIR)/.root" target
     + this copied all the skeleton files

- normal make
     + this re-installed everything ... in case a selected custom package
        installed a file on top of a default file living in the skeleton.

We used this feature quite often, since target skeleton was part of
what was updated from time to time as part of project development.
Comment 2 Thomas Petazzoni 2012-01-31 20:00:31 UTC
This is an enhancement request, not a bug.

For the moment, the recommended method is to use a post-build script that modifies the target filesystem, rather than making changes to the root filesystem skeleton. The post-build script is executed at every make invocation, so it is much, much easier to use that the root filesystem skeleton mechanism.
Comment 3 Thomas De Schampheleire 2014-02-09 07:05:22 UTC
I would like to propose to close this bug as wontfix, as we have other mechanisms in place to achieve the same goal... Do others agree?
Comment 4 Thomas De Schampheleire 2014-02-10 17:59:11 UTC
Other buildroot developers agree that this patch is very project specific and
should not be applied to mainline buildroot.

Please consider using a post-build script or rootfs overlay to achieve the same
effect (instead of changing files directly in the (custom) skeleton). See the buildroot manual for more information:
http://buildroot.uclibc.org/downloads/manual/manual.html#_customization