Re: pkgsrc RC scripts

[Joachim König <him%online.de@localhost>]

matthew sporleder wrote:
> I restarted (# /etc/rc.d/xyz restart) daemons way more often than I
> reboot.  Having all of that available in one place is the only way to
> go.
>   
If multiple (possibly self contained) configuration domaines (e.g. / for 
the base system,
/usr/pkg for pkgsrc packages, /usr/X11R7 for X11 etc) would exist and 
these would
be supported by the OS (e.g. rcorder knows about them and when they need
to be mounted), then one could also have a "rc" command that knows about 
the domains
and that could call the right script, e.g.for your example above:

# rc xyz restart

that then would do TRT.

I'm not saying it should be done that way, just that there are other 
solutions to the
problems raised by the people that want the configuration and startup 
scripts of a
domain inside the root filesystem, either mixed into the locations of 
the base OS in way
that they cannot easily be distinguished from the base OS 
configuration/startup scripts
(e.g. all rc scripts inside /etc/rc.d), or separated in a folder 
structure inside the root filesystem
(e.g. pkg rc scripts inside /etc/rc.pkg.d or similar).

But this scheme has also draw backs:

- the rc.subr must be kept in sync between e.g. /usr/pkg and the base OS 
whereas they could
 be independent if /usr/pkg and the base OS are completly separated.
- people who want to share /usr/pkg on different hosts have to manually 
install the rc scripts
 of /usr/pkg packages to the root filesystem on each host
- just blowing away /usr/pkg is not enough to remove all traces of a pkg 
installation

Of course, a self contained domain (e.g. /usr/pkg) is also difficult to 
administer if shared on
multiple hosts:

- how to handle VARBASE (when iinside /usr/pkg) which cannot simply be 
shared, but a
 directory structure has to exist on each host's VARBASE (this problem 
also exists for the above scenario)
- if /usr/pkg/etc is shared, different configuration settings on 
different hosts, e.g. port numbers
 for servers, rc.conf YES/NO settings depending on the host is 
difficult, but as the startup
 and the configuration files are shell scripts, we all know how to do it.

What I'd like to have is a choice with the advantages and disadvantages 
of the different
options documented and some guidelines for best practices for typical 
usages. And the
OS should support the different ways and not outrule one or the other.

Joachim