Re: itp: static bins / resolving static debian issues
On Tue, 24 Aug 1999, Marek Habersack wrote:
: * Steve Greenland said:
: > On 23-Aug-99, 14:30 (CDT), Justin Wells <jread@semiotek.com> wrote:
: > >
: > > Steve, it's remarkably difficult to construct a shell script that depends
: > > on root's declared shell in /etc/passwd. I don't believe any exist.
: >
: > Fine. That's not what was said.
: >
: > > Cron never uses it, the system startup utilities never use it, and I've
: > > never encountered anything else that ever used it either.
: [snip]
: > You're correct: it's not Linux. My point is that *you don't know* about
: > how a given system might be used or misused. Many of us have learned to
: > be cautious about screwing with root's shell. If you want to experiment
: > on your systems, fine. Just don't insist on experimenting on mine.
: Steve, we are talking about a STANDARD Debian system, not a MODIFIED one. We
: would install the statics package with a STANDARD set of utilities that come
: with Debian - cron and anacron are the two async schedulers that come with
: Debian and they work the way we expect them to. And I'm still yet to see
: what is the relevance between the root's shell and the crontab scripts or
: whatever scripts for that matter.
Nevertheless, please don't REQUIRE this stuff to be installed - make it
an OPTIONAL package for those who want it.
Rationale:
Changes are DANGEROUS. Make this change OPTIONAL, and if it's apparent
after a few months of use that your OPTIONAL package totally kicks ass
and is far better than the STANDARD way, you may then begin proceedings
to make your OPTIONAL method STANDARD.
Please don't bother me with fluff arguments about how cron works and why
your changes are sure to be safe - promises are a lot of hot air in the
real world.
A relevant fortune:
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not
tried it.
-- Donald Knuth
--
Nathan Norman
MidcoNet 410 South Phillips Avenue Sioux Falls, SD
mailto:finn@midco.net http://www.midco.net
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