Bug 11289 - search order for patches and files (FILESPATH)
Summary: search order for patches and files (FILESPATH)
Status: RESOLVED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: OE-Core
Classification: Build System, Metadata & Runtime
Component: core (show other bugs)
Version: 2.2.1
Hardware: x86 Multiple
: Medium normal
Target Milestone: 2.4
Assignee: Richard Purdie
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Depends on:
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Reported: 2017-04-04 06:37 UTC by Robert Berger
Modified: 2017-04-14 09:33 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
OS type for building Yocto: ---
Type of Regression: ---
Verified:
Documentation change: Yes (doc changes required)

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Description Robert Berger 2017-04-04 06:37:18 UTC 
According to this [1] the FILESPATH variable contains the default set of directories the OpenEmbedded build system uses when searching for patches and files.

I was wondering what's the search order e.g. if the same .patch is present in 2 different directories.

bitbake -e busybox | grep ^FILESPATH=

To my surprise I saw (after some cleanup this):

FILESPATH="
busybox/busybox/poky:
busybox/busybox-1.24.1/poky:
busybox/busybox/poky:
busybox/files/poky:
busybox/busybox/multi-v7-ml:
busybox/busybox-1.24.1/multi-v7-ml:
busybox/busybox/multi-v7-ml:
busybox/files/multi-v7-ml:
busybox/busybox/armv7a:
busybox/busybox-1.24.1/armv7a:
busybox/busybox/armv7a:
busybox/files/armv7a:
busybox/busybox/arm:
busybox/busybox-1.24.1/arm:
busybox/busybox/arm:
busybox/files/arm:
busybox/busybox/:
busybox/busybox-1.24.1/:
busybox/busybox/:
busybox/files/
"

I assumed that the order in which the directories appear has to do with the preference, but various directories appear multiple times like busybox/busybox/poky:

busybox/busybox/poky: <--
busybox/busybox-1.24.1/poky:
busybox/busybox/poky: <--

What's the order of preference supposed to be if someone throws a patch with the same name in 2 different directories? 

[1] http://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/latest/mega-manual/mega-manual.html#var-FILESPATHS
Comment 1 Richard Purdie 2017-04-14 09:33:23 UTC 
I think the issue was with your cleanup. I tried this locally and got:

poky/meta-poky/recipes-core/busybox/busybox/poky
poky/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox-1.24.1/poky
poky/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox/poky
poky/meta/recipes-core/busybox/files/poky
poky/meta-poky/recipes-core/busybox/busybox/qemux86-64
poky/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox-1.24.1/qemux86-64
poky/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox/qemux86-64
poky/meta/recipes-core/busybox/files/qemux86-64
poky/meta-poky/recipes-core/busybox/busybox/qemuall
poky/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox-1.24.1/qemuall
poky/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox/qemuall
poky/meta/recipes-core/busybox/files/qemuall
poky/meta-poky/recipes-core/busybox/busybox/x86-64
poky/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox-1.24.1/x86-64
poky/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox/x86-64
poky/meta/recipes-core/busybox/files/x86-64
poky/meta-poky/recipes-core/busybox/busybox/
poky/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox-1.24.1/
poky/meta/recipes-core/busybox/busybox/
poky/meta/recipes-core/busybox/files/

where you can see one is in "meta-poky" whilst the other is in "meta". Also, this variable works like PATH, the first found wins. You can therefore put the same patch in each of these directories and it will use the first one found. Even if there were duplicates, the system would still then work.