Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 23:02:34 -0400 From: "Tamir Halperin" <tamir@brobus.net> To: "Benjamin Krueger" <benjamin@seattleFenix.net> Cc: <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: System Delta Message-ID: <985DF46E87E0C047A3670048DBCAD055086949@andrew.brobus.net>
index | next in thread | raw e-mail
Thanks. I've always wondered what role CVS might play in this idea. All the research I've done indicates that lots of people are thinking about this but no one has ever built anything yet. Frankly, I'm surprised. I've seen so many cool open source tools out there for just about anything you can think of and something that seems to me a very useful systems management tool doesn't exist. If you or anyone else would be interested in building something, I'll shoot you the preliminary design for what I'm building. It's in Python and I've already started to code some of the features that iterate through all the services (deamons), missing files as well as changes to files that pre-exist the baseline. Any suggestions from others would be very much appreciated. Tamir 904.642.8268 -----Original Message----- From: Benjamin Krueger [mailto:benjamin@seattleFenix.net] Sent: Fri 8/30/02 7:24 AM To: Tamir Halperin Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: System Delta * Tamir Halperin (tamir@brobus.net) [020830 04:04]: > Here's the scenario: > > I install the OS and after the installation I install and configure > various services. It takes me a long time to do this because I have > to manually configure quite a few files as well as create quite a > few as well. > > Things either get screwed up or I decide for various reasons to > start with a fresh OS install. I don't want to have to configure all > those services from scratch, however. I have also set aside all the > new configuration files I created in the process of setting my > system up. I've also created a log of all the files I modified which > I didn't have to create because they were created for me as part of > the original install. > > All the changes I'm interested in I call my delta. The delta includes > the activation of services, creation of files and modification of > files. I'm looking for a delta manager that will allow me to apply my > specific changes of an OS installation to another OS installation > given that my specific changes apply to the target OS. > > I hear talk about something called an FFS snapshot slated for FreeBSD > 5.0-Current but I'm not sure it will do what I describe above. I've > read about DIFF and it's a great tool but it leaves too much to be > programmed around it for it to functionally satisfy my needs. I > submitted this question to the Webadmin list because I think it would > be natural for Webadmin to incorporate such a tool since it is > already managing most of the information that would be required to > make the tool very useful. I wasn't sure if the Webadmin folks > consider this in their domain of functionality so I thought I would > submit it here as well. Thanks in advance for the enlightenment. > > Tamir I've been considering a system using a local CVS repository to check in changes to configuration files. This could be useful in tracking which administrators made which changes in an environment with more than one. It could also be useful in tracking down subtle bugs caused by configurations changes over time. As an added bonus, such a system would allow you to create a standard set of configuration files in CVS which you could check out to your new generic OS. This is only an idea I've been floating around in the back of my head for a while, but if folks show interest in it I may try and schedule more time to actually developing and implementing it. Regards, -- Benjamin Krueger "Everyone has wings, some folks just don't know what they're for" - B. Banzai ---------------------------------------------------------------- Send mail w/ subject 'send public key' or query for (0x251A4B18) Fingerprint = A642 F299 C1C1 C828 F186 A851 CFF0 7711 251A 4B18help
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?985DF46E87E0C047A3670048DBCAD055086949>