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Matt Beland wrote: |
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> On Mon, Mar 11, 2002 at 02:32:24PM -0500, Yannick Koehler wrote: |
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> They are not more important, than the binaries, but they are far more likely |
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> to have been modified by the end user. If the end user has modified the |
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> binary, then they almost certainly are not using the ebuild. However, if all |
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> I want/need to do is modify the initscript, then I'm not going to go to the |
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> added hassle of manually tracking the program just because I use a different |
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> init from that provided by the ebuild. |
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|
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I think that gentoo's ebuild system open the doors to customized |
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binaries. That's actually why I like gentoo so much, I can grab an |
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ebuild, run ebuild <put your name>.ebuild extract, then customize the |
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source code and do the rest compile/install/qmerge. It's even more |
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simpler than ./configure && make && make install because it will |
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override my previous files and I'm sure not to have duplicates. |
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|
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So in my case its exactly the reverse that occurs, I have more binaries |
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customized than scripts inside /etc/init.d. I recentely changes my |
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syslog-ng to strip the program name from the $MSG macro because I |
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already had a $PROGRAM macro displaying its name. I sent the patch to |
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the owner meanwhile I have my version running. I fixed some issues |
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inside my mozilla because I knew that code. I changed the way some |
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other binaries worked too to my liking. Now I know what I did and it's |
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easy for me to re-emerge that stuff. But inside /etc I had to modify |
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files which I don't know all, some where modified by program which I |
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have no idea what exactly they did until I read their manual. So I |
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can't blind copy new files. I have to do the merge but last time my |
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merge could have been 7 files instead of 35. and the previous time 5 |
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instead of 24. etc.. And I expect not to be the only one which means |
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that you can multiply that by a big number. So I think there's place in |
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there for enhancement. |
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|
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> |
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>>Therefore I think they should be treated the same. Now they are treated |
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>>as config file and require end-users intervention when I don't see a |
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>>reason for most end-user. Like programs, some users will modify their |
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>>program by using personnaly modified source tree and those would know |
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>>not to put the binary or merge those package. |
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>> |
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> |
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> They are treated as a config file because they are a config file. They control |
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> how the binaries are started, how they're stopped, and how they're tracked |
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> while running. The current behavior is the proper behavior. |
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|
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From what I understand from a previous post, the config of those |
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scripts are in /etc/conf.d and not inside the scripts themselves. |
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|
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> |
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>>Actually I think it's even worse treating those files as config. |
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>>Because new users, the one that you always want to get in a distro may |
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>>be running pretty old script as they may not be aware on how to do the |
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>>merge step manually. |
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>> |
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> |
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> I understand the point behind being newbie-friendly, and the arguments for |
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> making something "easier for new users", but I have to disagree in this case. |
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> You're advocating making the system easier for a new user while making life |
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> more difficult for an advanced user. Quite frankly, that's why many of us |
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> *moved* to Gentoo over RedHat or one of the other distributions - they make |
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> life easier for new users at the expense of some of the innate power and |
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> flexibility of Unix. |
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> |
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> |
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|
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End-users that modify their scripts should use either different names or |
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backup them. As most people do about original works. I don't agree |
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it make their life more complicated because anyway those people knows |
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more and won't look forever at the cause of their problems compares to |
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newbies. |
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|
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Yannick Koehler |