article on data in OpenBMC

[Vijay Khemka]

On 5/26/20, 8:57 AM, "openbmc on behalf of Andrew Geissler" <openbmc-bounces+vijaykhemka=fb.com at lists.ozlabs.org on behalf of geissonator at gmail.com> wrote:

    
    
    > On May 22, 2020, at 3:46 PM, Brad Bishop <bradleyb at fuzziesquirrel.com> wrote:
    > 
    > Hello
    > 
    > I wrote this article on data in OpenBMC to begin an attempt at making
    > it easier to find data, when porting new systems to OpenBMC.  I say
    > begin because I only documented three repositories.  The idea is that
    > more would be added to the list over time.  My intent would be to add
    > this to the docs repository or to the wiki.  I would love to hear any
    > feedback on my article or any ideas anyone has on data in OpenBMC.
    
    Nice! Definitely a point of confusion for people so having something
    like this to reference and point to the more detailed areas is great.
    
    What’s your vision for this article? A doc repo? A wiki? Wikis def
    make it more likely to get updated.
    
    > 
    > thx - brad
    > 
    > ----------------------------------------
    > # Data Driven Applications in OpenBMC
    > 
    > **Purpose:** Describe techniques for finding data in OpenBMC.
    > 
    > **Intended Audience:** System integrators, system engineers, developers porting
    > systems to OpenBMC.
    > 
    > **Prerequisites:** None
    > 
    > If you already know the techniques for finding data in OpenBMC, skip ahead to
    > [the list of OpenBMC applications with
    > data](#list-of-openbmc-applications-with-data).
    > 
    > ## Techniques for finding data
    > ### Runtime configuration files in bitbake metadata
    > Some applications consume data in the form of runtime configuration files.
    > Runtime means the application loads the configuration data when it is invoked,
    > on the target (on the BMC).  Configuration files are `/etc/<packagename>.conf`
    > or in `/etc/<packagename>/` in the target's root filesystem.  The format of a
    > configuration file is application specific.
    
    Not sure if this doc is the best place but I’d like to see a best practices on
    file format (i.e. use .json) and runtime config file locations (i.?e.? /etc/ /var type 
    decisions). Also, the recommendation to make your data runtime config
    vs. build time config when possible (to make live debug/test easier).

I agree with Andrew here. As not all data are under /etc, some of runtime data are
under /var as well so it would nice to have some policy defined what type can go
where.