Dietpi: Merging DietPi-Set_Core_Environment into DietPi-PREP?

[MichaIng]

@Fourdee @k-plan
As DietPi-Set_Core_Environment resets a bid too much to use it for adopting changes on update, what do you think about merging it into the preparation script?

I am sometimes confused when tracking issues on preparation, switching between both scripts. Also some steps are doubled.

It would give a better overview and allows better red line within the process. And it would decrease the memory usage of DietPi a bid :wink:.

Only thing is that we would need to adjust the script calls within patch_file to manually adopt the changes.

Alternatively we could reduce the script to only implement our services and disable/mask the incompatible ones?
But to be true I still vote for moving our services into single files on github and bring them in place on dietpi-update by default. So they get updated automatically and are completely outside the memory afterwards. Now their content is kept in RAM together with dietpi-set_core_environment :wink:.

[Fourdee]

@MichaIng

The original reason for splitting these is to allow us to quickly run DietPi-Set_Core_Environment to patch critical DietPi 'stuff'/cron jobs/services etc on existing system, without having to manually patch using a copy from PREP.
The idea of it was to simplify patching for us, less chance of bad patch.

However, you make valid points. Yep, lets move this back to PREP.

[MichaIng]

@Fourdee

If we want to use it for the initial purpose, as far as I could see, we need to move at least dietpi user creation, cron and grub adjustments that would overwrite manual user additions/changes.

What do you think of the idea to create a separate /root folder tree on github that contains a folder structure for needed DietPi files outside of /boot/dietpi? This could me merged then into rootfs on dietpi-update (and by DietPi-PREP) and by this guarantee that our services and e.g. needed config files are always up-to-date without the need for defining their content within the scripts?

[Fourdee]

@MichaIng

What do you think of the idea to create a separate /root folder tree on github that contains a folder structure for needed DietPi files outside of /boot/dietpi?

We could try to use our existing /var/lib/dietpi folder for this?

This could me merged then into rootfs on dietpi-update (and by DietPi-PREP) and by this guarantee that our services and e.g. needed config files are always up-to-date without the need for defining their content within the scripts?

I've probably not had enough coffee yet 🤣 , but i'am unsure what you mean? 😕

[MichaIng]

@Fourdee
I mean our service files and properly configuration files we add: E.g. dietpi-boot.service /etc/profile.d/99-dietpi* etc. All those which need a certain location on system.
Storing them within the same folder structure on github as well, so that we can just copy this to / and are fine.

[Fourdee]

@MichaIng

Storing them within the same folder structure on github as well, so that we can just copy this to / and are fine.

Makes sense 👍 Good idea. Yep agree, lets go ahead with this.

[Fourdee]

Ok, best we wait until all pre-v6.2 images have been re-done, as v6.1 and below get patched with /DietPi/dietpi/func/dietpi-set_core_environment. I'am not eager on back-tracking the required items, or, keen on copying and pasting it all in the patch file :)

[MichaIng]

@Fourdee
Hui, larger task then I thought, to implement the rootfs file structure update, but done and ready to test: https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/pull/1802

Removing dietpi-set_core_environment actually is no problem then, as dietpi-postboot.service is added automatically, as well as updates for the other services, containing the updated BEFORE/AFTER/REQUIRES values.

But just to be sure all the incremental patch steps work well as expected on pre-6.2 systems, I will do some test with a v6.0 image: https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/tree/29ada9cd5bba442d41db6a97f2247faf188622d6

[MichaIng]

Tests:
🈯️ v6.0 after first run setup -> v6.9 via dietpi-update 1
🈯️ v6.-1 -> v6.9 via first run setup

Works as expected from first update on. I will mark this as closed, although further testing makes sense, as well as reordering/cleaning the DietPi-Set_Core_Environment parts within DietPi-PREP.

[Fourdee]

@MichaIng

Legend, great work on this, really impressive 👍

I was thinking we could also store dietpi-software installed services in on the rootfs area aswell, at some point in the future, should reduce line count somewhat 😃

[MichaIng]

@Fourdee
Jep, also all specific software title related content of /DietPi/dietpi/conf could be placed e.g. into rootfs/var/lib/dietpi/dietpi-software/... to reduce RAM load.
I was even thinking if it makes sense to not place them on the system at all, just download on demand/software installation. But this would mean a possible mismatch between DietPi version and software conf/service version.

Btw. do you know if it's possible to place symlinks into github? Should be possible if cloned from local repo, but at least I don't know how to create them within github web ui directly.

[Fourdee]

@MichaIng

Not sure, although we could symlink DietPi-RAMdisk to where we want it, during init:

ln -sf /var/lib/dietpi/dietpi-software/conf /DietPi/dietpi/conf

root@DietPi:~# ls -lha /DietPi/dietpi | grep conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   36 May 31 18:31 conf -> /var/lib/dietpi/dietpi-software/conf

Before = 1424K
After = 1312K

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Although, simply using /var/lib/dietpi/dietpi-software/conf would be cleaner in our scripts.