Subject: Re: Posible virc(8) implementation
To: Jonathan Stone <jonathan@DSG.Stanford.EDU>
From: Nathan J. Williams <nathanw@MIT.EDU>
List: current-users
Date: 05/04/2000 15:04:24
<jonathon@DSG.Stanford.EDU> (Jonathan Stone) writes:

> What I have been doing since rc.conf was created is to keep all
> host-identifying info (basically /etc/{ifconfig.*,myname,mygate} in
> the "old" files, and _everything_ else in /etc/rc.conf.
> 
> I've found this a very valuable way to "clone" specific machines, or
> populate a farm of "identical" machines.  I seem to do that a lot,
> both in an academica lab environment and in a startup.

MIT Athena deals with this problem both for SysV-like systems
(Solaris, Irix, maybe Linux) and NetBSD with monolithic rc.conf by
writing a small program called syncconf that reads the Athena-specific
configuration file (/etc/athena/rc.conf, as it happens) and
propagating the information in that to appropriate system
locations. It seems to be a pretty good approach for making
cookie-cutter systems, and it's survived being used on five or so
different operating systems.

        - Nathan