Re: [OE-core] [PATCH v3] bitbake.conf: Extend distro feature usrmerge to merge bin+sbin

["Mathieu Dubois-Briand" <mathieu.dubois-briand@bootlin.com>]

On Mon Aug 24, 2026 at 2:48 PM CEST, Jörg Sommer via lists.openembedded.org wrote:
> From: Randolph Sapp <rs@ti.com>
>
> The split of bin and sbin became more artificial over time, and it is no
> longer clear why programmes goes into the one or the other directory; e.g.
> forever normal users have used sendmail in /usr/sbin, and fdisk and mkfs
> learned to operate on files to create images long ago.
>
> Because systemd drives this movement to have only /usr/bin and symlink /bin,
> /sbin and /usr/sbin to there, the usrmerge feature (started by systemd too)
> should be extended to include the binmerge. For a system with split bin/sbin
> `systemctl status` reports the system as tainted for *unmerged-bin.*
>
> Override most sbin variables to point to their bin equivalent when
> usermerge is enabled, with the exception being base_sbindir_native and
> sbindir_native. There is no guarantee the host machine is using this
> filesystem scheme.
>
> This check was added to systemd back in 2024 [2].
>
> [1] https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/filesystem/-/blob/main/PKGBUILD
> [2] https://github.com/systemd/systemd/commit/844863c61e7b501097da84a1e4d1e4a6aa6d9f0d
>
> Signed-off-by: Randolph Sapp <rs@ti.com>
> Signed-off-by: Jörg Sommer <joerg.sommer@navimatix.de>
> ---

Hi Jörg,

I do note just one failure with this version, in two builds:

ERROR: lib32-inetutils-2.8-r0 do_install: Execution of '/srv/pokybuild/yocto-worker/qemux86-world-alt/build/build/tmp/work/x86-pokymllib32-linux/lib32-inetutils/2.8/temp/run.do_install.4024907' failed with exit code 1
...
| mv: '/srv/pokybuild/yocto-worker/qemux86-world-alt/build/build/tmp/work/x86-pokymllib32-linux/lib32-inetutils/2.8/image/usr/bin/ifconfig' and '/srv/pokybuild/yocto-worker/qemux86-world-alt/build/build/tmp/work/x86-pokymllib32-linux/lib32-inetutils/2.8/image/usr/bin/ifconfig' are the same file
| WARNING: exit code 1 from a shell command.
NOTE: recipe lib32-inetutils-2.8-r0: task do_install: Failed

https://autobuilder.yoctoproject.org/valkyrie/#/builders/17/builds/4324
https://autobuilder.yoctoproject.org/valkyrie/#/builders/25/builds/4479

Thanks,
Mathieu

-- 
Mathieu Dubois-Briand, Bootlin
Embedded Linux and Kernel engineering
https://bootlin.com