Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001 20:56:45 -0700 From: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> To: "Rodney W. Grimes" <freebsd@gndrsh.dnsmgr.net> Cc: Cedric Berger <cedric@wireless-networks.com>, arch@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: DJBDNS vs. BIND Message-ID: <3A933C7D.3E8D1265@softweyr.com> References: <200102202015.MAA77474@gndrsh.dnsmgr.net>
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"Rodney W. Grimes" wrote:
>
> > Cedric Berger wrote:
> > >
> > > > Configuration data
> > > > on VMS was mostly stored in the form of "logical names", which are sort
> > > > of like persistent environment variables with different namespaces (per
> > > > system, per group, and per user).
> > >
> > > Well, the windows registry also provide such kind of centralized,
> > > persistent environment variables, with different namespaces
> > > (per system, per user)?
> > >
> > > At least, let's say that Windows way of storing configuration looks
> > > closer then VMS than UNIX.
> >
> > OK, except VMS didn't store them in some half-baked database file, and
> > didn't regularly scramble all of it. ;^)
>
> You never had to deal with a scrambled sysuaf.dat, rightlist.dat,
> netproxy.dat or a million other ``registry like'' .dat files on VMS?
> Your fortunate! (Yea, VMS was 10^6 times better about not doing this,
> but it still did it, and one could usually easily recover by deleting
> the highest version of the file (thank god for versions).)
Mmm, good point. I'd forgotten about hacking into VMS 3.x systems by
playing games with system logicals to make it find my sysuaf.dat and
rightlist.dat on the next reboot. ;^)
> > The logicals on VMS were stored only in memory, and were created during
> > or after system boot by DSL procedures, the equivalent of shell scripts.
> ^^^ DCL
^^^^^^^ freudian slip, I guess ;^)
> > This is actually much more like UNIX than the Windows Registry.
>
> Take a look at ``DIR sys$system:*.dat'' some time and tell me that again...
> LNM is only one part of the picture...
Well, yeah, but the logicals are more like environment variables with
name scopes than the Registry. The *.DAT files are more like a cross
between /etc/passwd and a DBM database, something that lends itself
to updates more easily than text files, but is a royal pain to deal with
when the system is half-crippled. Personally, I've always liked the UNIX
method of sticking with text files, even if it does make the programming
somewhat more difficult.
The worst is to come up with some half-baked compromise, like the ODM db
on AIX, and all of the awful export/import BS they cobbled onto the side
of that so traditional UNIX programs would (sort of) work on their half-
breed (sort of) UNIX-ish system.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
wes@softweyr.com http://softweyr.com/
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