Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 23:40:30 -0400 From: Bosko Milekic <bmilekic@unixdaemons.com> To: Chris McCluskey <chris@digitaldeck.com> Cc: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Patch/Announcement for DHCPD remote root hole? Message-ID: <20020515234030.A81320@unixdaemons.com> In-Reply-To: <ECEPLGOFLCLKKCNAGCBHOEOFCCAA.chris@digitaldeck.com>; from chris@digitaldeck.com on Wed, May 15, 2002 at 08:29:25PM -0700 References: <4621.66.171.47.11.1021506833.squirrel@webmail.allneo.com> <ECEPLGOFLCLKKCNAGCBHOEOFCCAA.chris@digitaldeck.com>
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[moved to -doc] On Wed, May 15, 2002 at 08:29:25PM -0700, Chris McCluskey wrote: > [Acknowledged misuse of specific list] > > New to the FreeBSD administration side of things, so I might be able > to provide a more unique point of view as compared to all you FreeBSD > veterans. > > Both "sides" from my POV are making valid points (even if the methods > of presentation could be improved). > > I think we all agree that the fix-it-or-forget it philosophy rule > applies for all open source development -- whether it's bugs, > improvements, or documentation: > If you like it, use it -- make it better. > If you don't like it, fix it to make it better. > The end result -- it's better. > > In this specific case I think all that is required is a simple front > end to cvsup -- a kind-of "This package has been fixed for the > following issues... Do you want to build it and install it now?" kind > of thing. I'm not ready to write this myself, so I'll "shut up" on the > subject. <grin> > > But I think there is another issue here, which may be more to the > point. The FreeBSD documentation is great, but I have yet to see > perfect documentation. There are some small potholes in learning the > cvsup tool, and there are no concrete examples to follow. For those > that are good admins with tarballs and Makefiles, but are new to CVS > this is a hard road. The handbook basically says -- we tend to use > cvsup, cvsup uses CVS, these are the options, here's a template, now > go! A step by step example would be great (saying things like "This is > where you specify the release tag. Go to http://here for a list of > valid tags."). > > The important gotchas for me were as follows: > > 1) Starting out with the template file is good -- but knowing which > CVS server supports which protocols, which servers are online, and > which servers are "fully-synced" on a certain tree would be valuable. > A monitoring web page that checks for these things and a link to this > page in the handbook could easily fix this. The mirrors page is just a > bit to static. > > 2) The convention for naming (and retrieving) certain releases is > good. But a small blurb refreshing the user/admin as to what the > options are would be good. In fact a page listing and annotating the > different suffixes would be cool (does it exist already?!). It takes > the "new user" a bit of time to understand the labels used, but that's > part of the FreeBSD rite of passage. That said some clear references > and reminders as to what exactly [example only] RELENG_4_5 is would be > nice. > > A valid frame of reference for cvsup documentation would be to take an > admin who has used tarballs, configure scripts, and Makefiles to the > next level that of a CVS/cvsup user -- one the things that make BSD > unique and cool. I look forward to seeing the awesome documentation that addresses exactly those issues. Do you think you could provide us with that, since you are obviously familiar with what needs to be written? It's often the case that documentation folks can't cover _all the bases_, and this is totally expected; what we need then is for folks who've tripped over those bases to step in and write about them so that the other folks in line don't trip over the same ones. > My hats off to all the coders, developers, and documentation people -- > FreeBSD is a great OS. > > We can't write code for those that can't read, but for those that can > read, let's give them enough text and examples so they can find out > how good FreeBSD is -- and can be. > > Thanks for the time and the bits. Regards, -- Bosko Milekic bmilekic@unixdaemons.com bmilekic@FreeBSD.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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