Re: comments on installation instructions

[Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost>]

matthew green <mrg%eterna23.net@localhost> writes:

>> I did find that once it was pointed out.  But it's not in /etc/rc.d on
>> my netbsd-9 RPI3.
>>
>> I find it a bit odd to have the install image have rc.d content that the
>> standard system does not.  Certainly it's fair to add creds_msdos=YES to
>> the rc.conf on the image and have it off by default.
>
> it's some what dangerous (in that it edits passwd etc), so it was
> never considered part of the normal installation.  it shouldn't be
> any worse, but there's no real reason to include it as it's only
> to solve the problem of setup of eg arm64.img before it boots, so
> you can access the system remotely, safely.

I do see that point.

> that isn't going to change as anything it does can be performed
> from an already installed (and running) system.

I guess we're done then!

> the first paragraph tries to explain this.  if it's not clear to
> you, perhaps you can suggest edits?

I didn't misunderstand.  However, installing a man page for something
that isn't installed is also irregular, so maybe

  While the script is not installed, the man page is, so that people
  using other NetBSD systems to prepare systems for installation can
  read it.

which is also sort of a clue that maybe it belongs in the INSTALL doc
instead.

>> The man page says "found on the MSDOS partition of a bootable image" but
>> I at first thought it might mean "found in /boot/creds.txt when the rc.d
>> scripts (after mountall) run", because FILES says /boot/creds.txt.
>> Reading the script, I see what it's doing, but I didn't figure that out
>> from the man page.
>
> the manual could explain what $creds_msdos_partition is and use
> that in FILES, instead of the default.  would that make it clear 
> to you?

Yes.  I genuinely thought (from the manpage) it looked in /boot which it
expected to have been mounted by mountall which rcorder puts before
creds_msdos.  What is does seems good, once I understood.

>> The synopsis implies a script in bin or sbin, but it isn't.   I would
>> suggest changing the man page to say /etc/rc.d/creds_msdos in the
>> synopsis.
>
> it literally says it's an rc.d script the first line of the
> description.  i don't understand this part.

It does and I know where they go, but

  SYNOPSIS
       creds_msdos start

implies that one runs that from a shell, which is how pretty much every
other SYNOPSIS line is, and essentially no one puts rc.d in their path
(and shouldn't I would say) and thus to invoke it one would type

       /etc/rc.d/creds_msdos start

and saying it that way would more clearly convey that to people
who are moderately but not very used to things.