Subject: Re: PROPOSAL: NetBSD System Packages
To: Hubert Feyrer <feyrer@rfhs8012.fh-regensburg.de>
From: Todd Vierling <tv@pobox.com>
List: tech-pkg
Date: 09/30/1998 19:16:12
On Wed, 30 Sep 1998, Hubert Feyrer wrote:

: I'm still thinking that if I pkg_add imap or something, it should do *all*
: the work, not let the user manually deal with some files. 

I went through this... and imap-uw is a great example of why not to modify
things like inetd.conf automatically.  imap-uw comes with _three_ daemons, a
pop3, a pop2, and an imap daemon; which of the following should it do:?

- enable all three, potentially clashing with a different POP3 server
  installed by choice
- enable only imap, making the autoconfiguration inconsistent

: That's what I'd say, too.
: Unfortunately, we don't support a "-C(lue)" switch that does that
: additional work for these pkgs, and clueful people don't want some pkg
: mucking with their system's config files. 

The additional configuration is often too ambiguous.   think a good thing
here would be to add MESSAGE files to _all_ pkgs which need manual setup.
(Many of them don't, yet.)  That way the clue is handed to the user on
pkg_add.

: > There's already serious talk of better tools for config'ing /etc;
: > maybe you pkg people could keep in touch with that, and piggy-back off
: > the same tools.
: 
: Putting pkg-specific information into some external tool doesn't make any
: sense to me. If anything, we should supply "CLUEFUL.sh" files that do
: automatically for newbie users what clueful users would do by hand with
: their systems then. 

This would be OK, if the config weren't ambiguous for the pkgs in question.
And here you'd need to invent a new conflict determination system....

-- 
-- Todd Vierling (Personal tv@pobox.com; Bus. todd_vierling@xn.xerox.com)