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Date:      Fri, 28 Aug 1998 18:49:28 +0000
From:      Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>
To:        "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>
Cc:        committers@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: make.conf 
Message-ID:  <199808281849.SAA06317@dingo.cdrom.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 28 Aug 1998 18:45:10 MST." <23439.904355110@time.cdrom.com> 

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> > Just out of curiosity, given that /etc/make.conf is an entirely "local" 
> > (ie. site-specific) file, if you want to localise such that all your 
> 
> I think the issue is that it's not "entirely local" anymore, just as
> /etc/rc.conf isn't entirely local since you want to periodically merge
> it with the latest versions in order to get all the same hooks and
> customization knobs that everyone else is using.  In that scenario,
> you don't want to touch /etc/make.conf and /etc/rc.conf at all, you
> want to update them as part of your system upgrade procedure and only
> override the variables you're specifically interested in customizing.

You're right; I should have said "is meant to be entirely local".  As 
Matt pointed out, we're not using it like it's "meant" to be used.

> The fact that we handle this badly during upgrades is what's probably
> leading to a lot of features like Matt's.  If we did a better job of
> keeping /etc up to date while preserving the various localizations,
> it wouldn't be an issue.  But we don't. :(

Agreed.  It's not *impossibly* hard to merge at least some of this 
stuff; both rc.conf and make.conf are reasonably straightforward.  
Don't we have any aspiring Perl5 or Tcl weenies out there that would 
like to make their mark?  8)

-- 
\\  Sometimes you're ahead,       \\  Mike Smith
\\  sometimes you're behind.      \\  mike@smith.net.au
\\  The race is long, and in the  \\  msmith@freebsd.org
\\  end it's only with yourself.  \\  msmith@cdrom.com





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