Re: Goals for 1.3?

[bruce@pixar.com (Bruce Perens)]

From: Winfried Truemper <winni@xpilot.org>
On Sat, 21 Dec 1996, Marek Michalkiewicz wrote:
> > Hmm, I feel a little nervous about putting thigs like
> > 
> > SULOGIN=`cfgtool --get boot.sulogin`
> > 
> > at the very beginning of /etc/init.d/boot.  Why not just:
> >
> > . /etc/default/boot
> 
> Yes, you're right. :-)

No, I disagree. We're trying to take a step forward, not back. Sourcing
lots of shell files means you need to have a tool to generate little shell
files and a whole tree of little shell files wasting space, and no
centralized management of configuration data, and no hierarchical
organization of configuration data. It would be much better to have all
of this information in one database.

> I've experimented with "cfgdb" this weekend and it's much too slow for too
> little gain.

You experimented with the SHELL version of cfgdb. No wonder it was much
too slow! Once you are satisfied with the program it should be rewritten
in C.

> I mean, we deal with static information and there is no good
> reason to convert the settings for the shell to read on the fly.

There is a very good reason. We want to be able to administer systems
remotely, and we want to be able to set up a new system easily given a
list of settings. The database lends itself to that.

> Yes, but the rest what I wrote was nonsense. Too many ideas mixed up.
> The easiest way to implement defaults (in the sense of "apllication
> defaults") is to source in twice:

        . /etc/defaults/boot
        . /etc/script-env/boot

PLEASE do not implement it this way. Do not make it necessary to have
hundreds of little files to run a Debian system. Do it in one database,
with a program to hide the format of the database from the rest of the
system.

> "cfgdb" is of little use now but expect it's successor to appear as
> "cfgmgr" in a much more generall version soon.

No, please do not depart from the database plan.

	Thanks

	Bruce
--
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