Continuing discussion on Handling persistent files (/etc/group)during BMC updates

[Raviteja Bailapudi]

Hi all,

We are looking for thoughts and perspectives on the way the persistent 
files are managed across BMC code updates.

The problem is regarding the code update where, as a part of code update 
we don't touch any of the persistent files like /etc/group or /etc/password.

what if the new BMC image has an application which requires some changes 
to be present in these persistent files ?

For Example:
Let's say the BMC image which is used for code update has a new 
feature(ex:avahi) and it requires avahi user and
the group to be present in the /etc/passwd and /etc/group to even kick 
start it's daemon.

How to update such persistent files where customer data might exist?

One of the quick solution i could think of is:
- We can identify what is missing and then write a service override file 
to make the necessary changes in the persistent file.

But i am still looking community thoughts to fix this issue? There was 
already a mail sent regarding same, please find it below:
https://lists.ozlabs.org/pipermail/openbmc/2018-March/011162.html

Thanks!
Raviteja