From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Jul 1 15:40:59 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id PAA06502 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Wed, 1 Jul 1998 15:40:59 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from smtp04.primenet.com (daemon@smtp04.primenet.com [206.165.6.134]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id PAA06478 for ; Wed, 1 Jul 1998 15:40:53 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tlambert@usr07.primenet.com) Received: (from daemon@localhost) by smtp04.primenet.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) id PAA00776; Wed, 1 Jul 1998 15:40:48 -0700 (MST) Received: from usr07.primenet.com(206.165.6.207) via SMTP by smtp04.primenet.com, id smtpd000759; Wed Jul 1 15:40:47 1998 Received: (from tlambert@localhost) by usr07.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id PAA24131; Wed, 1 Jul 1998 15:40:40 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199807012240.PAA24131@usr07.primenet.com> Subject: Re: Adding a new user interface to FreeBSD administration To: fullermd@futuresouth.com (Matthew D. Fuller) Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 22:40:39 +0000 (GMT) Cc: mike@smith.net.au, jkh@time.cdrom.com, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <19980630181153.08867@futuresouth.com> from "Matthew D. Fuller" at Jun 30, 98 06:11:53 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > > > linux(enabled) = YES > > > > linux(doc) = { This variable controls whether linux emulation support > > > > will be automatically loaded at startup. You can also do it manually > > > > with the /usr/bin/linux command. } > > > > linux(exec-command) = "linux > /dev/null 2>&1" > > > > > > OK, so what's wrong with a simple /etc/rc.conf script that looks > > > something like: > > > > It doesn't scale. > > I don't see how. > Unless there's a limit (that we're likely to reach) on how long a shell > variable can be. I'm sure there is, but I'm not sure if it's low enough > that we're likely to hit it on a bootup sequence. It doesn't scale because it's a linearly exponential increase in overhead for the programs that source it as they search linearly through the name space for variables which might apply to them. It's also insufficiently dynamic, insufficiently hierarchical, and the interface is insufficiently abstact. The point of an abstract interface is to hide complexity. This doesn't hide complexity of greater than O(1). > I mean, it's the same way Jordan was going with a 'registry', except > thrown into a script. I can see it getting a little unwieldy at extreme > sizes, but then again, there's only so much you're really going to be > DOING on bootup. It's not just for booting. Consider the case of wanting to restart amd, for example. Your script would have to source all of rc.conf (or whatever you called it). Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message