On Thu, Apr 1, 2021 at 6:08 AM Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@...> wrote:

recently, i've run across a couple layers based on pretty much
up-to-date OE/YP, where fixed files are being added to a package via
assignments like this:

FILES_${PN} += "/data"

i already know that's a bad idea, but i'm curious as to what build
errors might occur when trying something like this.

What's the specific concern? It won't work well for -native recipes
(as discussed in another of these threads), but apart from that it
should work OK.

To be safe for use in a -native recipe you could change it to:

FILES_${PN} += "${base_prefix}/data"

i was first asked
about what might have caused a "pseudo abort" error as described here:

https://wiki.yoctoproject.org/wiki/Pseudo_Abort

where the generated error referred to "path mismatch ... ino #######
db" ... etc etc. my first (admittedly uneducated) guess was that, in
the midst of installation, some of that external content under /data
was perhaps being deleted or updated in some way that was changing
inodes.

I don't think you can corrupt the pseudo database with a packaging rule.

even if doing something like technically works, can someone explain
what ugliness might result, i'm assuming from having any of that
external data change in the middle of a build?

rday