Easy upgradeability (was Re: My installation story)
'Jeff Prothero wrote:'
>
>I think that is correct: In any constraint
>management system, moving from one valid
>configuration to another valid configuration
>usually requires temporarily breaking the
>constraints, and having the system ringing
>alarm bells madly the whole time one is
>attempting to set up the new configuration
>is counter-productive and distracting.
>
>E.g., I think attempting to switch from smail to
>sendmail in a configured Debian system will
>demonstrate this sort of problem?
In the general case of upgrading daemons (even from one version to the
next), I'm wondering on what the {post,pre}{inst,rm} scripts should
do. I think the old daemon should be stopped, the new one configured,
AND the sysadm queried about whether to start the new daemon.
[Unfortunately, I did take this stance with my radiusd-livingston
package :(] The point is that I might want to further test the new
configuration. This is especially true for something like sendmail
where brokenness could be /bad/ in a production environment. In fact,
I'm /very/ grateful to the sendmail maintainer that the postinst asks
"Should I start sendmail now?".
--
Christopher J. Fearnley | Linux/Internet Consulting
cjf@netaxs.com, cjf@onit.net | UNIX SIG Leader at PACS
http://www.netaxs.com/~cjf | (Philadelphia Area Computer Society)
ftp://ftp.netaxs.com/people/cjf | Design Science Revolutionary
"Dare to be Naive" -- Bucky Fuller | Explorer in Universe
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