Re: Caldera installation - something Debian should learn

[Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au>]

On Mon, Apr 26, 1999 at 12:21:08AM +0200, Remco Blaakmeer wrote:
> Example of this: try to change a computer's hostname and find every
> occurrence of the old hostname in configuration files to replace it with
> the new name. And don't say you could store it only once with a properly
> designed database, because that's just not true.

this is something i've done dozens of times(*). it nicely demonstrates the
superiority of text files for configuration data:

	vi `find /etc -type f | xargs grep -il OLD-HOSTNAME`

or you can perform the edits automagically with perl:

	perl -p -i.bak -e 's/OLD-HOSTNAME/NEW-HOSTNAME/g' \
		`find /etc -type f | xargs grep -il OLD-HOSTNAME`



(*) a quick way to build multiple similar debian systems is to build one
machine and use 'dd' and/or 'tar' to duplicate the drive. finally, use a
script to change the hostname, IP address, and other host-specific data.

the first machine takes the usual 2-4 hours to build, figuring out the
script takes a few more hours at most, subsequent machines take 20-30
minutes each (including time to power-down the build box and swap hard
disks). it helps if the hardware in each machine is identical. if the
drives are identical you can use dd...if not, use tar (and remember to
run lilo so the machine can boot).

alternatively, you can do a network install from a .tar.gz image file
with just a boot floppy and a network card driver.

craig

--
craig sanders