Re: RFC: A method to use Admin tools, like linuxconf
Let me start off fresh with the plain idea no fancy language.
right now a packafe includes the init scripts and puts them in /etc/init.d/
it then tells SysV init when to launch them by running update-rc.d. This
installs links into the rc*.d tree. This is limiting in the fact, that
if someone wants to use linuxconf, it is almost totally incompatable with
debian.
What I tried to propose is, 1. we give a little abstraction layer to
update-rc.d, what I called "configure". This abstraction layer is the
database file. The database file should never be consulted after dpkg
configures the package, unless perhaps we want to reconfigure the
system. What my modified version of update-rc.d, or the "configure"
program each package installs, does is to parse the database file and
creates what files that package needs, such as linuxconf's dropins.
I don't want to get rid of init. I believe we can live with SysV init.
We might not even include Linuxconf in the main distribution at first,
put it into contrib, but at least put more hooks into the release so that
it is easier to use it.
Now that I have digressed a little, let me get back to what I was saying,
what I am proposing does not involve putting anything in any proprietary
database that is looked up at boot time, configuration is done at package
configuration time, just like we run update-rc.d. Instead of update-rc.d
putting symlinks into the rc*.d tree, it does whatever is neccesary for
the init manager. Is this clear. I am not proposing a structure for
this database file, that is a topic for another discussion, hopefully
once we get over this hump.
To answer the question of Linuxconf storing configuration data in
proprietary places, IT DOESNT. It uses the standard tools, so it must
store their configuration files in their standard places. Some of the
other data, which doesn't have a standard place to put the configuration
data, like ethernet stuff, it puts in its own configuration file (at
least from my understanding of linuxconf's docs.) It actually detected
many of my setting automatically on a test Debian system I installed it
on, by reading the standard files, and it would write changes to those files.
Now if you don't like the fact that linuxconf puts all the non standard
data in one file, we can probably work with its developers to split that
data up, and maybe put it into files which make more sense, (Hey we may
even be able to publish a standard which other Distributions can
follow). More examples of this data which doesn't have a standard place,
is the Linux firewall rules. Usually you would just call ipfwadm by
hand, linuxconf will set the rules for you. Since their is no standard
place of putting this data, linuxconf stores it in its own file, which as
I said b/4 I think is plain text.
Well, please respond.
Shaya
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