[LEDE-DEV] replacing files in base system from a package?

[Alberto Bursi]

On 10/03/2016 11:00 PM, Karl Palsson wrote:
> Alberto Bursi <alberto.bursi at outlook.it> wrote:
>>
>> On 10/03/2016 03:26 PM, Karl Palsson wrote:
>>> What's the "new" way of doing this? In the past, in OpenWrt CC
>>> and before, a package could install files like /etc/banner and
>>> /etc/inittab that were provided by the base-files package. It was
>>> always listed as "unreliable" as apparently you couldn't rely on
>>> the order. In practice it actually worked just fine.
>>>
>>> What's the currently accepted mechanism for including replacement
>>> files in a custom build?
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>> Karl Palsson
>>>
>> What I've found so far for my own project is that a script in
>> /files/etc/uci-defaults folder in source folder should work.
>> Anyway scripts in /etc/uci-defaults (from any source) are
>> called on first boot and apply configuration changes on device,
>> just look at the ones you have already there in the rootfs.
>>
> You're absolutely correct, that way _works_ but it's pointlessly
> redundant to ship files just so that I can make the bootup
> process take longer while it "finishes" replacing files that I
> knew from the outset I never wanted. It also means that until
> _my_ uci-defaults file runs, (depends on everyone else) I still
> have the old original files in place. uci-defaults is a great
> mechanism for many things, but i really don't feel it's
> appropriate for everything.
>
> Sincerely,
> Karl Palsson

Ehm, I did say what I found and works, not necessarily what is best. I'm 
also trying to do the same and info is very meh.

Anyway did you try adding files in a /files folder you create in the 
source folder?
various sources claim that stuff in /files should theoretically go in 
the rootfs's / when building the image, so if you make 
/files/etc/config/myconfig it should go in the right place.
according to some posts in openwrt forum it seems to overwrite stock 
configuration at build time.
https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=22517
But I've not tried that yet in my project so I can't tell.
If it works (or not) please tell me as I'm also interested in that.

-Alberto