From owner-freebsd-hackers  Thu Apr 16 18:51:50 1998
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From: Archie Cobbs <archie@whistle.com>
Message-Id: <199804170150.SAA03474@bubba.whistle.com>
Subject: Re: Discussion : Using DHCP to obtain configuration.
In-Reply-To: <199804160151.SAA00388@antipodes.cdrom.com> from Mike Smith at "Apr 15, 98 06:51:57 pm"
To: mike@smith.net.au (Mike Smith)
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 18:50:55 -0700 (PDT)
Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
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Mike Smith writes:
> I recently posted asking for opinions as to the desirability of making
> the ISC DHCP tools part of the base system.  The response to this has
> been positive so far, and unless there are subsequent strong objections
> they will be imported contrib-style.
> 
> There are, however, a number of issues related to being a good DHCP 
> client which impact on the FreeBSD startup scripts.  These issues can 
> be resolved in a number of ways, with varying degrees of perturbation 
> and complexity.  Some discussion of the possible approaches would seem 
> to me to be a good idea.

The way UNIX piles random configuration information all into /etc
has always bugged the crap out of me.  Ideally, /etc should go away
because nothing should be "miscellaneous".. it should all be organized.

Hmm.. what if we created the /var/conf hierarchy...

   /var/conf/
     |
     + ntp/
     |  |
     |  + xntpd.conf
     |
     + dns/
     |  |
     |  + resolv.conf
     |  |
     |  + named/
     |     |
     |     + named.boot
     |     |
     |     + named.hosts
     |     |
     |     + [ etc ]
     |
     + amd/
     |  |
     |  + [ etc ]
     |
     + nfs/
     |  |
     |  + exports
     |
     + ppp/
     |  |
     |  + ppp.conf
     |  |
     |  + ppp.secret

     [ etc ]

Then all you would need would be:

 + Modification to the DHCP client to update these files
 + Script to read /etc/rc.conf and generate these files
 + Transitional symlink pointers from /etc

Would the forces of interia ever allow it?

-Archie

___________________________________________________________________________
Archie Cobbs   *   Whistle Communications, Inc.  *   http://www.whistle.com

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