[ On Wed, September 23, 1998 at 14:16:48 (-0500), John Darrow wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: Notes and Thoughs on System Packages
>
> But this doesn't solve the problem.  We should be able to do a 'pkg_info'
> from any of the clients and see all the system packages listed.

Life would be one *hell* of a lot simpler if folks didn't insist on
doing this.  IMNSHO it's a bogus requirement anyway.  If the user on the
client can't run a shell on the serer then that's just tough.  Too bad,
so sad.  Send e-mail to the server admin, or go knock on his/her office
door, or something.

An even worse idea is trying to install anything but the "diskless base
package" on a diskless client.  Wanting to do do is also, IMNSHO, a
bogus requirement.  Even trying to "upgrade" a client from the client is
silly -- just do it on the damn server and be done with it.  If you
don't have the root password on the server then there's probably a good
reason why you shouldn't be upgrading your diskless workstation either.

This way lies insanity, Solaris, et al.   K.I.S.S.

"But the lusers should be able to do this!" is *not* a valid argument in
my mind, and certainly isn't permitted on my network.  If they want to
play with installs then they need to requisition their own hard disk to
play on.

If the server "owns" the data, install it there, and leave it there.

Which reminds me, it would be really kool if there were a SunOS-4
equivalent way of doing "install_client" with the pkg_* tools once
there's a way of using them to install "system" packages.

Sorry if this sounds like a flame, but I really don't like unnecessary
complexity in systems administration tools.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098      VE3TCP      <gwoods@acm.org>      <robohack!woods>
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>