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Re: version control for config files



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On 26-09-2004 13:11, Patrick Willam wrote:
| Ralf Gesel|ensetter wrote:

| *All* config files for the system reside _physically_ in /etc;
| this is debian policy (or isn't it?).

Yes.

But beware that Skolelinux currently contains material not following
Debian Policy - like LTSP that you mention yourself.


| (If a program expect the conf-file in some other dir, then the
| file is in /etc an a symlink to /etc is at the expected place.)

Ahem - config files and conffiles are not exactly the same. Here's the
relevant part of Debian Policy:

| 10.7.1. Definitions
| -------------------
|
|  configuration file
|    A file that affects the operation of a program, or provides site-
|    or host-specific information, or otherwise customizes the
|    behavior of a program.  Typically, configuration files are
|    intended to be modified by the system administrator (if needed or
|    desired) to conform to local policy or to provide more useful
|    site-specific behavior.
|
| `conffile'
|    A file listed in a package's `conffiles' file, and is treated
|    specially by `dpkg' (see Section 6.6, `Details of
|    configuration').
|
|  The distinction between these two is important; they are not
|  interchangeable concepts.  Almost all `conffile's are configuration
|  files, but many configuration files are not `conffiles'.



| So you can make a tar just from /etc without special options [e.g. for
| symlinks] and have all the system config in one tarball.

All configuration files, yes. But not all configuration:

Not all of the configuration is within configuration files. Some of it
(like what packages are installed on the system, and answers to debconf
questions - some of which are not stored in configuration files) is
stored below /var.


| I think one just needs a mechanism to watch files for changes
| (e.g. "fam" does that) and initiate a cvs commit when that happens.
| And some tool which gets the conf-file information (see above) from
| the package management system and makes up a configuration for "fam"
| out of it.

Have a look at the package changetrack (which fires off emails of diffs
whenever a file is changed) as a skeleton for this. Or maybe the package
can even be used as is, but tweaked to do other stuff than send emails.


~ - Jonas

- --
* Jonas Smedegaard - idealist og Internet-arkitekt
* Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

~ - Enden er nær: http://www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm
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