I want to package a single file, a special startup script that will eventually wind up in /etc/init.d so that when I build an image it will always be included. I don't want to create a tarball of the file or any extra Makefiles. Right now my package Makefile looks like this:

include $(TOPDIR)/rules.mk

PKG_NAME:=dummy
PKG_VERSION:=2
PKG_RELEASE:=1

include $(INCLUDE_DIR)/package.mk

define Package/dummy/install
    $(INSTALL_DIR) $(1)/etc/init.d
    $(INSTALL_BIN) ./files/dummy $(1)/etc/init.d/
endef

$(eval $(call BuildPackage,dummy))

Trying to build this either by itself "make package/dummy/install"  or linked in to the packages along with a full build fails. I get am getting

This is caused by the last line calling BuildPackage.

I'm aware of the wiki package page:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/creatingpackages

but it doesn't help in this case. I can't find any example packages either. They all have some sort of tarball associated with them that gets downloaded.

Is there any way to create a package without doing a build and only including files?

Gus

I had to add the following sections to a similar package of mine:

define Build/Compile
endef

define Build/Configure
endef

One question - are you building your own firmware?  If so there's a simple way to include files without making a package.  You only need to build a package if you want to install the file on an existing system.

That doesn't work. I still get the same error.

I am building my own firmware. How do I go about adding extra files easily?

You may also need to add a "define Package/dummy" section.

To embed files, refer to the instructions here https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=23388

This is a Makefile format that works here :

include $(TOPDIR)/rules.mk
include $(INCLUDE_DIR)/kernel.mk

PKG_NAME:=zzz-dummy
PKG_RELEASE:=2
PKG_VERSION:=1

include $(INCLUDE_DIR)/package.mk

define Package/zzz-dummy
  SECTION:=net
  CATEGORY:=Base system
  TITLE:=Custom Startup Script
# DEPENDS:=@LINUX_2_6 +ip +ntpclient +tc +hostapd-utils +iw +wpa-supplicant
endef

define Package/zzz-dummy/description
The description of what your single package does
endef

define Build/Compile
    rm -rf $(PKG_INSTALL_DIR)
    mkdir -p $(PKG_INSTALL_DIR)
endef

define Package/zzz-dummy/install
    $(INSTALL_DIR) $(1)/etc/init.d
    $(INSTALL_BIN) ./files/dummy $(1)/etc/init.d
endef

$(eval $(call BuildPackage,zzz-dummy))

That's great! Both methods work. One caveat for anyone doing a cut and paste is that the lines in the Build/Compile and the Package/zzz-dummy/install section need to start with TABS and not spaces because these eventually wind up as Makefile commands.

This looks like it should be moved to  the HOWTO section.