File heuristics

swupd-server uses a set of heuristics that are applied to files.

Configuration file

A file is a configuration file if it has the following prefix:

/etc/

If the "stateless" build-time option (see Build-options) is enabled, configuration files are removed from manifests, otherwise they are kept.

State file

A state file has one of the following file prefixes:

/dev/
/home/
/proc/
/root/
/run/
/sys/
/tmp/
/var/
/usr/src/

State files are kept in manifests, but they are always ignored by swupd-client.

Boot file

A file is marked "boot" if it has one of the following prefixes:

/boot/
/usr/lib/modules/
/usr/lib/kernel/
/usr/share/kernel/
/usr/lib/gummiboot
/usr/bin/gummiboot

Boot files are kept in manifests only if they are not marked deleted. Because these files may have special lifecycles, the idea is for boot files to be managed by a program external to SWUPD. For example, in the Clear Linux OS, this program is the clr-boot-manager.