Re: Configuration management, revision 3
Martin Oldfield <m@mail.tc> wrote:
> Raul> Note that most packages do not require such a state machine.
>
> True, although I note the obvious fact that this is a special case of
> a state machine with a simple transition matrix: if the verification
> script returns 0 on OK, and -1 on error:
Sure, but that's not the issue. The issue is defining a proper
interface.
We're trying to define something which, fundamentally, is very simple.
We shouldn't bury it in massive complexity.
> Raul> I'm not convinced that installation scripts are the right
> Raul> place for packages which do require such complicated
>
> Please do you have an example of where this breaks ? It would be nice
> to know if it's just difficult, or there's a major conceptual cock-up.
Huh?
We already have a number of postinst scripts which do configuration by
running package-supplied executables from /usr/sbin.
On the one hand I suppose it would be nice to have these executables
support the same variety of input mechanisms that we're providing for
dpkg's scripts. On the other hand, I don't think it's wise to require
that software supplied in debian packages can only be configured by
programs which use a debian-specific interface.
Fortunately, we don't have to. It should be sufficient to have the
option of dealing (or not) with such configuration programs.
> Raul> For the case of bulk installation (many machines being
> Raul> configured) you only need to provide for the simple case.
> Raul> It's probably sufficient to provide for one or two simple
> Raul> cases, then also give the *option* of running some smarter
> Raul> program at postinstallation time.
>
> Isn't it better to have a single tool which scales well ? I appreciate
> that this is much more difficult, but I don't see that it's
> impossible.
You're saying that we should take full responsibility for writing
all configuration code for all packages which will ever be used on
the system? That's a good way of choking off development until we
come to our senses.
--
Raul
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