Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2001 01:34:24 -0700 From: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> To: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> Cc: Randell Jesup <rjesup@wgate.com>, Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>, Matt Dillon <dillon@earth.backplane.com>, Alfred Perlstein <bright@wintelcom.net>, josb@cncdsl.com, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: DJBDNS vs. BIND Message-ID: <3AA4A110.5245FCD4@softweyr.com> References: <200102200122.SAA04466@usr05.primenet.com> <ybupugd2u4n.fsf@jesup.eng.tvol.net.jesup.eng.tvol.net> <3A934507.A0645CF3@softweyr.com> <ybug0gr3hsc.fsf@jesup.eng.tvol.net.jesup.eng.tvol.net> <15012.11507.801736.502035@guru.mired.org>
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Mike Meyer wrote:
>
> Randell Jesup <rjesup@wgate.com> types:
> > Moved from -arch to -chat.
> > Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> writes:
> > >We in the unix world have a well-founded aversion to storing configuration
> > >information in binary data stores that can't be accessed via ed(1) when
> > >the system is in single-user mode. If we wanted to stuff all the system
> > >configuration into such a black hole, we could've done it with DBM data-
> > >bases more than a decade ago, quite easily.
>
> Oddly enough, this exact suggestion - stuff all the configuration
> information in a DBM - came up on a private list I'm no not long
> ago. The suggestion came from someone very sharp, the goal being to
> focus more talent on making the DBM fast. The problem Wes mentioned
> prett much killed it at that point.
>
> > As someone said, vipw is a good counterexample.
> > The above schemes do allow you to use ED (if you like) to edit
> > configuration files. In one case it's totally free (even cp will work), in
> > the other you have to use some sort of vipw thing to invoke the editor and
> > make sure that the file is notified as changed (or integrate with the
> > editor in some automatic or semi-automatic way).
>
> The critical issue isn't being able to use ed per se, it's working in
> single user mode, with no file systems mounted and no daemons
> running. How do your schemes deal with that requirement?
Text-to-dbm converters still work fine in single user mode, as long as
they're robust to handle not having a daemon to talk to. I even have one
application that rips configuration information out of a PgSQL database
and stuff it into a DBM database, on system startup and whenever the PgSQL
table gets modified.
Ick.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
wes@softweyr.com http://softweyr.com/
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