From owner-freebsd-hackers Thu Jul 2 22:37:24 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id WAA17819 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Thu, 2 Jul 1998 22:37:24 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from mail1.its.rpi.edu (root@mail1.its.rpi.edu [128.113.100.7]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id WAA17808 for ; Thu, 2 Jul 1998 22:37:16 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from drosih@rpi.edu) Received: from [128.113.24.47] (gilead.acs.rpi.edu [128.113.24.47]) by mail1.its.rpi.edu (8.8.8/8.8.6) with ESMTP id BAA104188; Fri, 3 Jul 1998 01:37:04 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Sender: drosih@pop1.rpi.edu Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <199807030416.VAA03798@antipodes.cdrom.com> References: Your message of "Thu, 02 Jul 1998 18:10:44 EDT." Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 01:40:56 -0400 To: Mike Smith From: Garance A Drosihn Subject: Re: Variant Link implementation, continued Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG At 9:16 PM -0700 7/2/98, Mike Smith wrote: > Allowing links to indicate that they *should* be keyed off the > environment space, OTOH, isn't such a sin. eg: > > ${sysctl:hw.arch} and ${env:USER} > > but this creates a new union space with yet another different > syntax. > > ${space=sysctl, mib=hw.arch} and ${space=env, var=USER} > > perhaps? Hmm, not quite the strategy I was leaning towards, but I do feel much less concerned with this than the earlier alternative. If the creator of the link really *wants* the link to change based on an environment value, then any headaches caused are their fault, and not the implementation's fault. Something like this would let administrators or system-developers to use variant symlinks in situations where any value influenced by the users environment would just be begging for trouble. Thus, something long these lines would, I think, make variant symlinks more useful. I must admit I don't understand your comment about a "new union space", so I would lean toward a more terse syntax, such as your first suggestion. Perhaps that just proves I should go home and get some sleep... --- Garance Alistair Drosehn = gad@eclipse.its.rpi.edu Senior Systems Programmer or drosih@rpi.edu Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message