From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Jul 2 01:34:28 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id BAA05648 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Thu, 2 Jul 1998 01:34:28 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from IAEhv.nl (root@iaehv.IAEhv.nl [194.151.64.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id BAA05629 for ; Thu, 2 Jul 1998 01:34:19 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from wjw@surf.IAE.nl) Received: from surf.IAE.nl (root@surf.IAEhv.nl [194.151.66.2]) by IAEhv.nl (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id KAA28430; Thu, 2 Jul 1998 10:33:32 +0200 (CEST) Received: (from wjw@localhost) by surf.IAE.nl (8.8.7/8.8.7) id KAA29656; Thu, 2 Jul 1998 10:33:32 +0200 (MET DST) Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 10:33:32 +0200 (MET DST) From: Willem Jan Withagen Message-Id: <199807020833.KAA29656@surf.IAE.nl> To: drosih@rpi.edu Subject: Re: Variant Link implementation, continued X-Newsgroups: list.freebsd.hackers In-Reply-To: References: <13617.899298865@time.cdrom.com> Organization: Internet Access Eindhoven, the Netherlands Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG In article you write: >My initial reaction is that I wouldn't want links to depend on values >in environment variables. If I setup some "clean environment" for a >program I'm exec-ing, I'm not going to think to copy values which are >important for these links to work. > >So there's two questions. One is how to you make sure you're looking >at the correct & current environment, and the other is how do you know >that that environment (once you find it) includes all the symbolic- >link-related variables (and values) which will be expected. I think I'd agree with you on this. Even Apollo's had certain links which were very critical. For those who never saw Domain OS: Dependant on a env-variable (SYSTYPE) one would be able to switch, on the fly, between 3 OS interfaces. This would hold for: the application layer, ( aka shells and programs ) include files ...... I used it a lot to switch between the differnt releases of software I was maintaining. Working on an older version, just meant that I'd set the env-variable MYVERSION to a previous release, then do a cd ~/src/project and life was again simple. Your argument would lead to introduce 2 types of resolution: - important system-links, which are under control of 'root'. The are extracted first from the/a sysctl-namespace, and then (if not available there) from the users env. - regular links, which follow the process Terry outlined in one of the other messages: user-env, process-grp-env, init-env --WjW -- Internet Access Eindhoven BV., voice: +31-40-2 393 393, data: +31-40-2 606 606 P.O. 928, 5600 AX Eindhoven, The Netherlands Full Internet connectivity for only fl 12.95 a month. Call now, and login as 'new'. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message