On Wed, 17 Mar 1999, Andrew Gillham wrote:

// And what if I want one 'rc.conf' for a laptop at home, and one for
// the laptop while "mobile", and one for it when it is at work?  Now I
// have to use some fancy script to keep track of all the little bits
// that relate to this hostname.  Sure 'dhclient' would probably solve
// the interface and resolver bits, but where is the decision about
// whether to launch a web server, and proxy server, nfsd, etc,
// depending on my ip address? For me this would be via an "overall
// configuration" file like rc.conf that is switched depending on where
// my laptop is.  Little files in /etc are not the best for this.
// (neither is switching rc.conf actually)

	(from my laptop, I love DHCP):

DOMAIN=`domainname`

echo "Doing local configuration for $DOMAIN"

if [ -f /usr/local/etc/dhconfigs/$DOMAIN ]
then
    /usr/local/etc/dhconfigs/$DOMAIN
else
    echo "No config for this domain ($DOMAIN)"
fi

	It starts up netatalk in the right places, NIS in the right
places, Samba in the right places, etc...

// Another thing that might be worth considering, is creating a method
// of using a specific rc.conf.* depending on what ethernet device was
// found, or based on the mac address found.  I have a docking station
// and home, and at work.  The only real difference is the mac address
// on 'ex0', yet I want a different rc.conf for each machine.  I also
// want different /etc/fstab, or /etc/amd/*, etc.

	dhclient really is a win here

// As far as _I_ am concerned the _network_ is up.  My
// ftp/telnet/web/whatever client will work.  Perhaps I don't even
// start "services" on my machine? IMHO, 'rc.net' is fine for starting
// network interfaces.  Then there could be an 'rc.daemon', or
// 'rc.servers' or whatever.

	This is why I like the SysV.  I think that's *MUCH* too general. I
want rc.apache, rc.squid, rc.pageserv, etc...  I want these to be able to
not only start things, but stop them.  I want to be able to have packages
install in such a way that they can safely add startup scripts, and
even...take them away.  rm is certainly a pleasant way of disabling a
package (or mv, or chkconfig, etc...).

// services != network.  I could start services with only a loopback,
// which is not exactly "network" either.  Services use the network,
// but are not the network.  Admittedly without services of some sort,
// there is little use for the network.

	You don't make outbound connections from your UNIX machines?  :)

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pub  1024/3CAE01D5 1994/11/03 Dustin Sallings <dustin@spy.net>
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