Bug#275951: Please split kdmrc into multiple files for ease of maintenance

[Achim Bohnet <ach@mpe.mpg.de>]

On Tuesday 12 October 2004 16:50, you wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 12, 2004 at 03:54:50PM +0200, Achim Bohnet wrote:
> 
> > > I've seen ucf in action, and I don't see how it can be readily applied here,
> > > or what its advantages over the proposed script would be. Do you have any
> > > specific approach in mind?
> > 
> > AFAIU your goal is to make merging of upstream changes in kdmrc easier.
> > 
> > Currently kdmrc is a conffile and admin see all changes, regardless if the
> > sys admin did them or it's an upstream change. Ucf AFIAU offers such
> > merging.  So visual clutter can be reduced.
> 
> In my experience, not by much; but maybe the other packages that use ucf
> don't use it optimally.
> 
> > Your proposed solution with a splitted kdmrc and a update-* tool
> > does not work easily because kdmrc can also manipulated by a kontrol
> > center modules.
> 
> You're right. Too bad...
> 
> >  So without modifying kdm & kcm_kdm you also have to
> > ensure that changes via kcm module in kdmrc are 'backported' to the
> > several little config files.  IMHO not worth all the trouble.
> 
> Yes, it does look ugly at first sight; however, the backporting isn't so
> difficult in itself:

Oh, Maybe kiosk tool may also modify kdm settings (not checked).
There is also the problem that kde config tried to minimize
changes: if a user and system config file contain the same setting
it's removed from the user file.  I've not thought about it
> 
> 1. generate kdmrc as it would look without kcm changes
> 
> 2. diff with existing version; assume changes were made by kcm
> 
> 3. propagate changes to kdmrc_kcm (a fourth config that takes precedence
> over user, debian and upstream)

So a special case just for kdmrc?

There is also the problem that kde config tried to minimize
changes: if a user and system config file contain the same setting
it's removed from the user file.  I've not thought about it how
this could influence the four config file case.  KDE config stuff
is already complex enough for me >;-/


> 
> The problem is _when_ to do this. The kdm initscript seems like a reasonable
> place.

AFAIK kdm reload config if modified before starting each chooser/login
window.

> What do you think?

I still have the feeling that it's too much effort.
My first try would be UCF but I done no experiments with it
yet (UCF usage is still on TODO for my pkgs).  So it 
may not help much in your case.

Achim
> 
> Andras
> 
> -- 
>                  Andras Korn <korn at chardonnay.math.bme.hu>
>                  <http://chardonnay.math.bme.hu/~korn/> QOTD:
>                     Never accept a drink from a urologist.
> 
> 
> 

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