Re: [RFC PATCH 0/1] Image minimization

[Jan Kiszka <jan.kiszka@siemens.com>]

On 29.05.19 12:45, [ext] claudius.heine.ext@siemens.com wrote:
> From: Claudius Heine <ch@denx.de>
> 
> Hi,
> 
> here is a RFC patch that adds a minimization extensions to images.
> 
> The basic idea behind this is that it allows to remove specific packages and
> files from the root file system in a post-processing step. This is useful in
> case there are tight storage space restrictions. It breaks the package
> management in multiple different ways and degrees, but the main idea is to
> reduce the root file system to a minimal set of files that are necessary for the
> device to still perform its function.
> 
> I envision the `IMAGE_MINIMIZATION_FEATURES`, `IMAGE_MINIMIZATION_PACKAGES` and
> `IMAGE_MINIMIZATION_FILES` to be the user facing interface for this.
> 
> While removing packages, I use the dpkg from the buildchroot in order to be
> independent from the tools on the image. This also allows to remove dpkg while
> still being able to use it.
> 
> I would like to hear some input about the general design, before I start
> cleaning that up and testing it more intensively.

Looks reasonable from the interface POV. So, users would normally only juggle
with our predefined minimizations features and, thus,
IMAGE_MINIMIZATION_FEATURES. Only very few cases would then require stepping one
level down and fiddle directly with package lists or even individual files.
Would likely make this reasonably convenient.

I would suggest adding a tiny demo image as well, something that only gives you
a shell prompt or so.

Jan

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