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

[Alexander A. Filippov]

On Fri, Aug 09, 2019 at 12:19:32PM +0530, Raviteja Bailapudi wrote:
> 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.

We had faced with the similar issue several months ago and don't find good
solution yet.
https://github.com/openbmc/openbmc/issues/3468

> 
> 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
>