From owner-freebsd-hackers  Thu Sep 28 07:19:18 1995
Return-Path: owner-hackers
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) id HAA15032
          for hackers-outgoing; Thu, 28 Sep 1995 07:19:18 -0700
Received: from healer.com (healer-gw.Empire.Net [205.164.80.204])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id HAA15027
          for <hackers@freebsd.org>; Thu, 28 Sep 1995 07:19:10 -0700
Received: (from gryphon@localhost) by healer.com (8.6.11/8.6.9.1) id KAA24338; Thu, 28 Sep 1995 10:23:40 -0400
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 10:23:40 -0400
From: Coranth Gryphon <gryphon@healer.com>
Message-Id: <199509281423.KAA24338@healer.com>
To: hackers@freebsd.org, peter@taronga.com
Subject: Re: ports startup scripts
Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org
Precedence: bulk

>From owner-freebsd-hackers@freefall.freebsd.org Thu Sep 28 09:18:40 1995
From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: ports startup scripts
To: hackers@freebsd.org
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 07:38:30 -0500 (CDT)
In-Reply-To: <199509271906.PAA21561@healer.com> from "Coranth Gryphon" at Sep 27, 95 03:06:40 pm
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24]
Content-Type: text
Content-Length: 447       
Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org
Precedence: bulk

> +> No files are edited by packages. The packages/ports put control information
> +> into /etc/packages and /etc/init.d (for dependencies and scripts
> +> respectively).

> What is /etc/packages in your model? If it's a file, well, we've just come
> back to the original problem of having automated editing of a file.

It's a directory (or directory tree) that holds configuration information
on packages.  Used in place of /var/db/pkg (based upon the idea to keep all
system configuration information under /etc). Package install just puts
the approprite files into the directory. I prefer one directory (with
files "foo.DESC"), rather than the tree ("/etc/packages/foo/DESC"),
but it doesn't really matter.

> And the other control files have still to be dealt with.

We can only avoid editing files so much. Password files, inetd.conf, services.
These have to be editied, or we have to throw them out and replace them
with another model. At some point, you either have to allow auto-editing
of system files, or just leave some stuff to hand-configuration.

Or make all entries into /etc/services and /etc/inetd.conf and comment
out the lines that correspond to packages not yet installed. The package
can be told exactly what line to uncomment. Anything else requires
human intervention.

It's still a LOT better than we have now.

-coranth

------------------------------------------+------------------------+
Coranth Gryphon <gryphon@healer.com>      |  "Faith Manages."      |
                                          |        - Satai Delenn  |
Phone: 603-598-3440   Fax: 603-598-3430   +------------------------+
USMail: 3 Hansom Drive, Merrimack, NH  03054
Disclaimer: All these words are yours, except Europa...