Re: [OE-core] [PATCH] openssh: add variable for key path

Paul Barker
2026-01-08T14:00:32Z

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On Fri, 2026-01-02 at 12:27 +0100, Patrick Vogelaar via
lists.openembedded.org wrote:
> This patch adds a variable for the key directory path. This is especially
> useful when working with a read-only file system where you want to
> specify the location e.g. on a r/w partition. To be consistent, the
> change was also done for the read write path.
>
> For changing the path simply create a bbappend and override the
> variable.
>
> Signed-off-by: Patrick Vogelaar <patrick.vogelaar.dev@mailbox.org>
> ---
> .../openssh/openssh_10.2p1.bb | 16 ++++++++++------
> 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/meta/recipes-connectivity/openssh/openssh_10.2p1.bb b/meta/recipes-connectivity/openssh/openssh_10.2p1.bb
> index 866129573f..e319f4ac24 100644
> --- a/meta/recipes-connectivity/openssh/openssh_10.2p1.bb
> +++ b/meta/recipes-connectivity/openssh/openssh_10.2p1.bb
> @@ -99,6 +99,10 @@ CACHED_CONFIGUREVARS += "ac_cv_path_PATH_PASSWD_PROG=${bindir}/passwd"
> # We don't want to depend on libblockfile
> CACHED_CONFIGUREVARS += "ac_cv_header_maillock_h=no"
>
> +# This allows overriding the key location in a bbappend
> +RO_SSH_KEY_DIR ?= "/var/run/ssh"
> +SSH_KEY_DIR ?= "/etc/ssh"

The naming here is very easy to confuse, but I guess it's to match with
the 'sshd_config' and 'sshd_config_readonly' filenames. I think we
should be explicit in the RO case that we're talking about the read-only
configuration though. And we'd prefer this as a suffix instead of a
prefix.

Oh, and we should make it clear that this is specific to openssh, then
these variables could be set from a config file instead of just a
bbappend. And make it clear that it's for the host keys while we're at
it.

Many 'and's there!

So, I suggest we use:

OPENSSH_HOST_KEY_DIR
OPENSSH_HOST_KEY_DIR_READONLY_CONFIG

> +
> do_configure:prepend () {
> export LD="${CC}"
> install -m 0600 ${UNPACKDIR}/sshd_config ${B}/
> @@ -113,24 +117,24 @@ sshd_hostkey_setup() {
> # Enable specific ssh host keys
> sed -i '/HostKey/d' ${D}${sysconfdir}/ssh/sshd_config
> if ${@bb.utils.contains('PACKAGECONFIG','hostkey-rsa','true','false',d)}; then
> - echo "HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key" >> ${D}${sysconfdir}/ssh/sshd_config
> + echo "HostKey ${SSH_KEY_DIR}/ssh_host_rsa_key" >> ${D}${sysconfdir}/ssh/sshd_config
> fi
> if ${@bb.utils.contains('PACKAGECONFIG','hostkey-ecdsa','true','false',d)}; then
> - echo "HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key" >> ${D}${sysconfdir}/ssh/sshd_config
> + echo "HostKey ${SSH_KEY_DIR}/ssh_host_ecdsa_key" >> ${D}${sysconfdir}/ssh/sshd_config
> fi
> if ${@bb.utils.contains('PACKAGECONFIG','hostkey-ed25519','true','false',d)}; then
> - echo "HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key" >> ${D}${sysconfdir}/ssh/sshd_config
> + echo "HostKey ${SSH_KEY_DIR}/ssh_host_ed25519_key" >> ${D}${sysconfdir}/ssh/sshd_config
> fi
>
> sed -i '/HostKey/d' ${D}${sysconfdir}/ssh/sshd_config_readonly
> if ${@bb.utils.contains('PACKAGECONFIG','hostkey-rsa','true','false',d)}; then
> - echo "HostKey /var/run/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key" >> ${D}${sysconfdir}/ssh/sshd_config_readonly
> + echo "HostKey ${RO_SSH_KEY_DIR}/ssh_host_rsa_key" >> ${D}${sysconfdir}/ssh/sshd_config_readonly
> fi
> if ${@bb.utils.contains('PACKAGECONFIG','hostkey-ecdsa','true','false',d)}; then
> - echo "HostKey /var/run/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key" >> ${D}${sysconfdir}/ssh/sshd_config_readonly
> + echo "HostKey ${RO_SSH_KEY_DIR}/ssh_host_ecdsa_key" >> ${D}${sysconfdir}/ssh/sshd_config_readonly
> fi
> if ${@bb.utils.contains('PACKAGECONFIG','hostkey-ed25519','true','false',d)}; then
> - echo "HostKey /var/run/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key" >> ${D}${sysconfdir}/ssh/sshd_config_readonly
> + echo "HostKey ${RO_SSH_KEY_DIR}/ssh_host_ed25519_key" >> ${D}${sysconfdir}/ssh/sshd_config_readonly
> fi
> }

Best regards,

--
Paul Barker

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