Re: placing /etc under RCS control

[jpb <jpb@creol.ucf.edu>]

"Noah L. Meyerhans" wrote:
> In order to better manage configuration changes, I have decided to place
> /etc/ under control of RCS.  Naturally, doing this means that write access
> is removed from most files and 'co -l' is needed in order to edit them.  I
> have placed the /etc directory on my local workstation under RCS control
> and noticed no problems, but before I do that on my remote server I would
> like some input from the community.  Have I overlooked anything?  Does
> anything in /etc really need write permissions?  I have seen the Id fields
> in most files in /etc/.  Can RCS be made to read these fields?  If so,
> how?  What about recursively placing all subdirs of /etc under RCS
> control?

Go with cvs instead.  My servers etc directories are under cvs control -
I use a Makefile to handle copying the files out of the cvs working
directory into /etc and then do the right thing, like so:

#snip
INSTALLCONF=sudo install --mode 644 --owner root --group root

inetd: inetd.conf
	$(INSTALLCONF) inetd.conf /etc/inetd.conf
	sudo killall -HUP inetd

#end snip

You get the added bonus of having multiple copies - one in the
repository, one in place, one in each working directory

Very nice if you have multiple people doing configuration changes.

Also, cvs handles subdirectories without problems.
-- 
Joe Block <jpb@creol.ucf.edu>
CREOL System Administrator

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