Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Daniel Campbell <zlg@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: /etc/hostname on gentoo
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2016 06:30:37
Message-Id: 245bf9cd-648f-5ab1-0ff3-8bfe554bd592@gentoo.org
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: /etc/hostname on gentoo by Zac Medico
1 On 08/24/2016 09:42 AM, Zac Medico wrote:
2 > On 08/24/2016 09:33 AM, Michael Orlitzky wrote:
3 >> * no benefit put forth so far, other than that it's the same file that
4 >> systemd uses, which is true but not beneficial as far as I can tell
5 >
6 > It's a de facto standard. Being different for the sake of being
7 > different is not a virtue in cases like this.
8 >
9
10 And doing things because "everyone else does it" is dumb, because it
11 precludes our ability to choose and makes us subject to the decisions
12 made outside of our distribution. Of course, as a distro we're subject
13 to outside decisions often, but what's the point of being a distro if
14 you're doing things the same way everyone else does?
15
16 mjo made a good point. What if the meaning of /etc/hostname changes? Or
17 rather, what if the file gets moved altogether? All this effort to
18 "follow the flock" will lead to higher maintenance burden. Symlinking it
19 in pkg-postinst or some other mostly-automatic behavior makes sense
20 because then a package "owns" the file. Should an update happen where
21 the decision to follow the flock is rescinded, a revbump with the
22 symlinking line removed would cleanly get rid of the symlink without any
23 user intervention and next to zero maintenance burden.
24
25 /etc/conf.d/hostname sits alongside multiple other files, including
26 hwclock, consolefont, localmount, fsck, modules, sshd, udev, etc. By
27 glancing at it, it's clear that /etc/conf.d/ relates to system (or
28 rather, package) configuration.
29
30 Considering that OpenRC puts package configuration there, and OpenRC (by
31 default) looks for the hostname file in that directory, it's a
32 non-issue. Why should OpenRC look elsewhere for configuration when
33 there's already a place for it?
34
35 If systemd or other inits need it, then they should install the file and
36 guess the initial value by sourcing /etc/conf.d/hostname. It's none of
37 OpenRC's concern what other inits need.
38 --
39 Daniel Campbell - Gentoo Developer
40 OpenPGP Key: 0x1EA055D6 @ hkp://keys.gnupg.net
41 fpr: AE03 9064 AE00 053C 270C 1DE4 6F7A 9091 1EA0 55D6

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Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: /etc/hostname on gentoo "Michał Górny" <mgorny@g.o>
Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: /etc/hostname on gentoo "M. J. Everitt" <m.j.everitt@×××.org>
Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: /etc/hostname on gentoo Zac Medico <zmedico@g.o>
Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: /etc/hostname on gentoo Patrick Lauer <patrick@g.o>