From owner-freebsd-current Wed Mar 10 20:36:34 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from peach.ocn.ne.jp (peach.ocn.ne.jp [210.145.254.87]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2005D14D9A for ; Wed, 10 Mar 1999 20:36:24 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dcs@newsguy.com) Received: from newsguy.com by peach.ocn.ne.jp (8.9.1a/OCN) id NAA17444; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 13:36:03 +0900 (JST) Message-ID: <36E747EB.A6CFA403@newsguy.com> Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 13:34:51 +0900 From: "Daniel C. Sobral" X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win98; I) X-Accept-Language: pt-BR,ja MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Robert Watson Cc: paul@originative.co.uk, current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: HEADS UP: new loader.rc stuff References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Robert Watson wrote: > > 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. Well, the idea behind loader.conf is *reducing* flexibility, in a way... :-) There are features in it that make it that still gives a lot of flexibility, to be able to deal with unexpected situations. But loader.conf syntax is ="", with # treated like bourne shell do. The loader.rc file contains commands in a very flexible language, making it virtually impossible for automated tools to modify it. So, loader.conf. -- Daniel C. Sobral (8-DCS) dcs@newsguy.com dcs@freebsd.org "FreeBSD is Yoda, Linux is Luke Skywalker." To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message