Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Patrick Lauer <patrick@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: /etc/hostname on gentoo
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2016 12:34:39
Message-Id: b779de13-c77e-8fd0-63be-cb3aa890ae0d@gentoo.org
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: /etc/hostname on gentoo by Daniel Campbell
1 On 08/28/2016 08:30 AM, Daniel Campbell wrote:
2 > On 08/24/2016 09:42 AM, Zac Medico wrote:
3 >> On 08/24/2016 09:33 AM, Michael Orlitzky wrote:
4 >>> * no benefit put forth so far, other than that it's the same file that
5 >>> systemd uses, which is true but not beneficial as far as I can tell
6 >>
7 >> It's a de facto standard. Being different for the sake of being
8 >> different is not a virtue in cases like this.
9 >>
10 >
11 > And doing things because "everyone else does it" is dumb, because it
12 > precludes our ability to choose and makes us subject to the decisions
13 > made outside of our distribution. Of course, as a distro we're subject
14 > to outside decisions often, but what's the point of being a distro if
15 > you're doing things the same way everyone else does?
16
17
18 At this point I feel the need to point at /etc/mtab and how it doesn't
19 work anymore. Or rather:
20
21 In the old days it did *not* carry all mountpoints, so you could hide
22 things like /dev and /run so that "umount -a" would not screw you sideways.
23
24 Then tools forgot to properly update mtab because hurr why u no symlink
25 to /proc/mounts (oh wait, /proc/self/mounts )
26
27 So everyone migrated to /etc/mtab as a symlink (even OpenRC, because
28 everyone does it)
29
30 ... and now if you still instincively use umount -a you unmount /run and
31 other bits, breaking lots of stuff (can't shutdown if OpenRC strongly
32 considers not having booted!)
33
34
35 That's why some of us are very resistant to change.
36 >
37 > mjo made a good point. What if the meaning of /etc/hostname changes? Or
38 > rather, what if the file gets moved altogether? All this effort to
39 > "follow the flock" will lead to higher maintenance burden. Symlinking it
40 > in pkg-postinst or some other mostly-automatic behavior makes sense
41 > because then a package "owns" the file. Should an update happen where
42 > the decision to follow the flock is rescinded, a revbump with the
43 > symlinking line removed would cleanly get rid of the symlink without any
44 > user intervention and next to zero maintenance burden.
45 >
46 > /etc/conf.d/hostname sits alongside multiple other files, including
47 > hwclock, consolefont, localmount, fsck, modules, sshd, udev, etc. By
48 > glancing at it, it's clear that /etc/conf.d/ relates to system (or
49 > rather, package) configuration.
50 >
51 > Considering that OpenRC puts package configuration there, and OpenRC (by
52 > default) looks for the hostname file in that directory, it's a
53 > non-issue. Why should OpenRC look elsewhere for configuration when
54 > there's already a place for it?
55 >
56 > If systemd or other inits need it, then they should install the file and
57 > guess the initial value by sourcing /etc/conf.d/hostname. It's none of
58 > OpenRC's concern what other inits need.
59 >

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: /etc/hostname on gentoo Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o>
Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: /etc/hostname on gentoo "Michał Górny" <mgorny@g.o>