Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 19:34:12 -0500 (EST) From: Robert Watson <robert@cyrus.watson.org> To: "Daniel C. Sobral" <dcs@newsguy.com> Cc: paul@originative.co.uk, current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: HEADS UP: new loader.rc stuff Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.990310193047.27517B-100000@fledge.watson.org> In-Reply-To: <36E6451C.67B16009@newsguy.com>
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So this is actually just a general response to the whole thing--one of the things I actually dislike about rc.conf is its flexibility: the user can put anything script-wise they like into it. My temptation would be to reduce the flexibility: to have a simple name:value configuration file (with appropriate extensions for lists, quoted strings, etc) that is guaranteed to be readable by any third-party (or even first-party :) automated configuration programs. Depending on your mood, the name field could even be MIB-like (boot.runaway: yes). It just seems like sometimes scripts give too much flexibility :-); rather than providing useful increased functionality, they improve the chances that the user will screw themselves by taking advantage of it in ways that confuse automated utilities such as configuration checkers, managers, etc. Robert N Watson robert@fledge.watson.org http://www.watson.org/~robert/ PGP key fingerprint: 03 01 DD 8E 15 67 48 73 25 6D 10 FC EC 68 C1 1C Carnegie Mellon University http://www.cmu.edu/ TIS Labs at Network Associates, Inc. http://www.tis.com/ Safeport Network Services http://www.safeport.com/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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