Re: [RFC] Debian tuning documents package

[Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.org>]

Andreas Tille wrote:
> there are several situations where packages have to be configured to
> work together under certain circumstances of operation or hardware
> technology.
> 
> I wonder if we should not try to collect kind of a knowledge base
> for those cases.  For instance I red several interesting Mails on
> the Zope mailing list (others might do as well on Apcahe, PostgreSQL
> etc. ) which describe how to run Zope with Apache, Squid, ZEO etc.
> 
> It would be great if we would have a collection of such interesting
> descriptions comleted by (Debian) tested example configuration. Such
> kind of knowledge base would be a great piece of documentation, IMHO.
 
I believe that it's probably a very good idea to create a knowledge
base with superiour information about tuning packages, integration
solution and stuff.  However, this is difficult to manage by a small
set of people.  If managed properly it is very helpful, though.

I can only think about a community approach to manage such an
archive.  Hence, all Debian developers should have write access and
contribute whenever they see some interesting bit that should be
included.  However, for polishing and correcting grammar and spelling,
a small set of people should review and correct new contributions.

I could think of the following ways to manage such a document:

 1. WikiTuning

    Use wiki.debian.net and let anybody contribute to the document.
    However, this would mean that this document would only be available
    on the web (afaik) and it won't be a comprehensive text but a set
    of links and text - which may not be that easy to read.

 2. DDP::Debian Tuning or Debian Hints

    The DDP is writable by all Debian developers and maintains SGML
    files (that can include other files), is maintained via CVS, and
    is automatically exported to the Debian website.  Once a general
    structure is set up, new sub-documents could be contributed as
    single files to be included into the main document (hence easily
    be moved around in the main document).

 3. Debian Hints Database

    This would probably enable easy keyword searching and could be
    exported to the web and packages as well.  However, it's more
    difficult to set up.

I guess, I would opt for the second implementation idea, and I would
quite like set it up with Andreas.

However, one could argue that some bits should go into the Debian FAQ
or Debian Administrators Guide.  I don't think we are talking about
*frequently* asked questions here, but special cases that are useful,
but not that often used or required.  As for the Administrators Guide,
this one is debatable, and I agree that it may be a proper way if the
DAG contains a section about Tuning and Integration that contains such
small documents.

> This documentation package could be accomplished by packages which
> depend from two or more cooperating packages and ensure via debconf
> best cooperation of both / all of them.  For instance a package
> 
>    Package: coop-squid-zope
>    Depends: squid (>= <version>, zope (>= version)
> 
> could set up reasonable Squid parameters via debconf to work as
> reverse proxy cache for the Zope server to enhance its performance.

I believe this would just contribute to package bloat if every such
information would be placed into its own package.

If, however, none of the above is implemented, the best way left over
would be to include some additional README files in the affected
packages.

Regards,

	Joey

-- 
We all know Linux is great... it does infinite loops in 5 seconds.
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