USERPATCHES_PATH customization and inconsistency across the framework

[EvilOlaf]

By chance I was thinking about organizing various custom configurations I thought about having multiple directories for userpatches and define one of these at runtime.

From what I've seen the path seems to be set here:

build/lib/functions/cli/entrypoint.sh

Line 87 in 134ae29

declare -g -r DEST="${SRC}/output" USERPATCHES_PATH="${SRC}"/userpatches # DEST is the main output dir, and USERPATCHES_PATH is the userpatches dir. read-only.

and from there going forward the path should be stored in $USERPATCHES_PATH variable, right?

However search simply for userpatches reveals that on several occasions the path seems to be hard-coded (list incomplete):

build/lib/functions/cli/utils-cli.sh

Line 147 in 134ae29

conf_path="${SRC}/userpatches/config-${argument}.conf"

build/extensions/gen-sample-extension-docs.sh

Line 13 in 134ae29

generate_sample_extension_to_stdout > "${SRC}/userpatches/extensions/sample-extension.sh"

build/lib/functions/host/docker.sh

Line 572 in 134ae29

run_host_command_logged find "${SRC}/userpatches" -name ".DS_Store" -type f -delete "||" true

So the question is am I wrong here for some reason? Is this intended? Should the path be stored in a variable everywhere? Should the patch possible be customizable? Like ./compile.sh BOARD=asdf USERPATCHES_PATH=asdf MyConfigInAsdf

[github-actions]

Jira ticket: AR-2468

[pavlot-scriptec]

Some time ago, I already raised this issue: #4118. (sorry, now I'm writing from work account)

But after some re-thinking extensions looks more promising for me. They can be placed to existing user_patches directory as a separate git repository. So you can develop and track changes for them separately from Armbian sources.

Another killer feature - extensions have hooks. This allow you to prioritize code execution and call required code at different stages of build process.

I have prepared article how extensions could be used: https://github.com/pavlot-scriptec/scriptec-blog/blob/main/customize_armbian_image_using_extensions.md.

If you have any questions feel free to contact