Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 15:19:34 -0700 (PDT) From: Matthew Dillon <dillon@apollo.backplane.com> To: Peter Jeremy <peter.jeremy@alcatel.com.au> Cc: Juergen Unger <j.unger@addict.de>, freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Mergemaster [was: Re: Ifconfig config of gif tunnels] Message-ID: <200210162219.g9GMJYEt017521@apollo.backplane.com> References: <004401c2742a$d6169d90$6501a8c0@VAIO650> <3DAC0045.4060201@Kernick.org> <3DAC163D.1060701@inode.at> <20021016193422.A51167@raven.addict.de> <20021016213038.GH32705@gsmx07.alcatel.com.au>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
:>file via cvs.
:>If the old existing file was never modified by an admin then
:>let mergemaster silently install the new version.
:>So all such files like /etc/periodic/*, /etc/mtree/*, /etc/default/*
:
:This is unlikely to cause a problem for /etc/mtree. It's probably
:OK for /etc/periodic but is definitely dangerous for /etc/default.
:
:In the recent past, there have been changes to /etc/default/rc.conf
:which inverted the run state of inetd (twice), significantly changed
:the behaviour of the sendmail and changed the parameter meaning for
:log_in_vain. These all potentially require corresponding changes to
:/etc/rc.conf. Two mechanisms are usually proposed to allieviate the
:need to read changes to /etc/defaults/rc.conf:
:1) Read UPDATING
:2) Explicitly include the wanted status of relevant variables (on or
: off) in /etc/rc.conf.
This is not correct. As long as the changes to the /etc/rc* files
are synchronized with the changes to /etc/defaults/*, the expected
behavior (at least as close as it is possible to get) will be
maintained. That's the whole point.
In the case of sendmail, the entire sendmail subsystem was changed
for security reasons and now local mail delivery requires a daemon
to be running. Since local mail delivery is expected to work even
with sendmail_enable turned off, that feature was maintained. The
sendmail daemon running when sendmail_enable is turned off is not
externally visible on the network. I did not have to touch my
/etc/rc.conf file for a single machine because I fully expected
local mail delivery to work even on those boxes with sendmail disabled.
The behavior for log_in_vain was maintained, as closely as possible
given the new functionality, again assuming that you properly update
both /etc/rc* and /etc/defaults/*.
It may not be perfect, but it is a damn site better then if you
were to update /etc/rc* separately from /etc/defaults/*. Regardless
of whether you might have to make changes to your /etc/rc.conf,
/etc/rc* and /etc/defaults/* should almost universally remain in
synch with each other. I don't see how 'having to modify /etc/rc.conf'
in any way implies that either /etc/rc* or /etc/defaults/* should not
be updated. In the long run not keeping those two blocks in sync
is going to produce far more problems.
-Matt
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200210162219.g9GMJYEt017521>