From owner-freebsd-chat Sun Jun 17 9:22:35 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from guru.mired.org (okc-65-26-235-186.mmcable.com [65.26.235.186]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 2B82137B405 for ; Sun, 17 Jun 2001 09:22:32 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mwm@mired.org) Received: (qmail 1385 invoked by uid 100); 17 Jun 2001 16:22:31 -0000 From: Mike Meyer MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <15148.55623.109849.700547@guru.mired.org> Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 11:22:31 -0500 To: Chris Moline Cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: System Tuning/Sysadmins In-Reply-To: <20010617093905.A20349@h24-67-61-12.lb.shawcable.net> References: <20010617063505.A29241@shell.monmouth.com> <20010617073505.B20171@h24-67-61-12.lb.shawcable.net> <20010617103922.A79022@acidpit.org> <20010617093905.A20349@h24-67-61-12.lb.shawcable.net> X-Mailer: VM 6.90 under 21.1 (patch 14) "Cuyahoga Valley" XEmacs Lucid X-face: "5Mnwy%?j>IIV\)A=):rjWL~NB2aH[}Yq8Z=u~vJ`"(,&SiLvbbz2W`;h9L,Yg`+vb1>RG% *h+%X^n0EZd>TM8_IB;a8F?(Fb"lw'IgCoyM.[Lg#r\ Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Chris Moline types: > On Sun, Jun 17, 2001 at 10:39:22AM -0400, Robert Hough wrote: > > On Sun, Jun 17, 2001, Chris Moline wrote: > > I'm all for the snazzy new tools that are coming out. I use > > metatool under Solaris all the time, simply because typing in all > > those commands when building a new volume gets really freaking > > old. I can do it if I must though. Now, if I could just get them to > > use veritas instead, cause metatool annoys the piss out of me. > I agree with you here, sort of. I am not talking about gui tools > specifically, jsut easier-to-use ones. I believe that it is entirely > possible to create an easier-to-use text-mode interface. Case in > point, kernel configuration. Just simply open lint, read through it, > and maybe the handbook if it has been awhile, then edit generic, do > config/etc and voila you are done. If only everything in bsd could > be that simple. No, don't edit generic. Edit a copy of generic with your kernel's name on it. That means your changes can be displayed with a simple diff. If you're like me, you check them both into a source code control system as well so you can use that to integrate changes when you update the system, and check it out when you need to rebuild the system. > Also what happens if someone's wiped out the editors, or /etc?? I > fail to see how this is different from X not working. Perhaps it's > less likely for vi and /etc to be wrecked in some way than X?? > Easier to fix?? Two different answers. If /etc is wrecked, then your system didn't go multiuser, and X is going to be unusable. That has to be fixed without X in either way. If vi is wrecked, you use /bin/ed. If that's wrecked, it's easier to fix than X, as all you need is that one file. If you can't get that, you have other options, starting with sed and dd. But to use those tools, you have to know the structure of the file you're going to edit. Which is the real problem with the GUIify the world approach to system administration: the GUI hides the details about what's going on, so if that tool isn't available, the admin has no idea how to go about fixing things with the tools that may be available. http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message