Date:        Fri, 31 Dec 2004 01:23:07 +0100 (CET)
    From:        Dieter Baron <dillo@danbala.ifoer.tuwien.ac.at>
    Message-ID:  <200412310023.iBV0N7J26667@danbala.tuwien.ac.at>

  |   ``All of that work'' usually consist of three commands:
  | 
  | pkg_add (or make install)
  | vi /etc/rc.conf
  | .../rc.d/foo start
  | 
  |   Which corresponds exactly to the three actions I want to perform:

But why is three magic?

For me, one is what I want - when I install most packages that's exactly
what I expect, I install this one, and having done that, it works.   But
when I install this other one it doesn't work?   Why is that?

  |   I do *not* want to have to do any more, or make any of the steps
  | more complicated.

Then why not make them less complicated?  Why would you demand to have
to run an editor on rc.conf for example (I'm assuming that you're not
proposing requiring that the editor be vi necessarily, though personally
I wouldn't mind that...)

  | And, with the exception of installing, this is
  | exactly what I do to enable a server that is part of the base system.

But that exception is what makes the base system different/

  | : (it is less easy to justify that some servers
  | : get enabled in one way, and others in an entirely different way, but that's
  | : not the issue now).
  | 
  |   No, that is *exactly* the issue!  Servers in the base system and
  | servers from pkgsrc should be enabled in the same way.

No, you misunderstood my remark.   I meant the two (perhaps more) different
ways to enable servers in the base system (not meaning pkgsrc at all).
That is, for some servers one is required to edit rc.conf (and then run
the rc.d script - or reboot).   For other servers one edits inetd.conf,
and then runs a totally unrelated rc.d script (or kills (sends a signal to)
a mysterious process - or reboots).    That difference is annoying,
especially when it relates to two different instances of the same basic
command - take web servers, apache wants an rc.d script (I believe),
bozohttpd wants inetd.conf.

There may be other ways I've forgotten at the minute for other servers.

Wouldn't it be nice to just be able to say "enable bozohttpd" or "enable
apache" or "enable ftpd" or "enable sshd" and have it do whatever is
appropriate for that particular server?    Which in the pkgsrc case, could,
sometimes, include coping an rc.d file from one place to another, if it
wasn't already present where required, couldn't it?

kre