Default pkg_preinst

pkg_preinst()
{
    return
}

Sample pkg_preinst

pkg_preinst() {
    enewgroup foo
    enewuser foo -1 /bin/false /dev/null foo
}

Common pkg_preinst Tasks

There are a few things that are often done in pkg_preinst:

• Adding users and groups — see Users and Groups.
• Modifying the install image for a particular system. This function allows system-specific customisation to be done even when installing from a binary. The most useful example is probably smart configuration file updating — a pkg_preinst could check a configuration file in ${ROOT}/etc/ and create a smart updated version in ${D}/etc/ (see Install Destinations) rather than always trying to install the default configuration file (remember Configuration File Protection).