/etc/sysconfig or /etc/hostconfig (was Re: /etc/default)

[Craig Sanders]

it seems to me that there are two types of "default" file being
discussed here.

The first is default options for executables - i.e. /etc/default. Most
discussion so far has concentrated on this. This will require massive
changes to the system so that binaries know how to use the default
information (e.g. tar has to be patched to use /etc/default/tar) unless
we have a way of converting these /etc/default/* files into the
relevant environment variables.


The second is boot time configuration information - information that
the system needs to boot up correctly...network address, what programs
to run, etc. This is probably a lot easier and simpler to implement as
we don't need to make any radical changes to the binaries to get the
benefits.

Some of the machines I use at work are FreeBSD, some are NextStep (my
personal workstation is Debian, of course...and is the most stable of
the lot. By example of my machine only i have convinced the boss that
debian linux is a damned good system :).

One thing I really like about BSD & NextStep is their /etc/sysconfig
(BSD) and /etc/hostconfig (NS) files.  (I know debian is sysV and not BSD
but a good idea is a good idea :) I tend to prefer the hostconfig file
because it's just a list of simple variables, each containing one value
only.


These contain simple directives like:

BSD: 

---cut here---extract of sample /etc/sysconfig---
hostname="host.domain.blah"
defaultdomainname=NO
tcp_extensions=YES
ipfirewall=YES
network_interfaces="ed0 lo0"
ifconfig_ed0="inet xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx netmask 255.255.255.0"
ifconfig_lo0="inet localhost"
route_loopback="${hostname} localhost"
defaultrouter=203.2.135.53
routedflags=NO
timedflags=NO
xntpdflags="NO"
tickadjflags="-Aq"
---cut here---sample /etc/sysconfig---

NextStep:

---cut here---sample /etc/hostconfig---
HOSTNAME=hostname
INETADDR=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
ROUTER=-ROUTED-
IPNETMASK=
IPBROADCAST=-AUTOMATIC-
NETMASTER=-YES-
YPDOMAIN=-NO-
TIME=-AUTOMATIC-
---cut here---sample /etc/hostconfig---


The nice thing about these types of files is that they're easily parsed in
sh.  In fact, they can even be sourced in an /etc/init.d/* script to provide
environment variables (although that might have undesirable side-effects).

If we use something like this, we would need:

- an easy way for debian.{pre,post}{inst,rm} scripts to add, delete,
  and extract individual entries.  sed would do the trick for sh,
  and perl should have no problems at all with this format.

  When a usenet news related package is installed, it should
  examine this file to see if NEWS_SERVER is defined. If it is, it
  uses it. 

  If not, it should query the user and add a line like
  "NEWS_SERVER=hostname.domain". We should provide a standard
  script, which the postinst script calls to do this.


- a defined standard for how /etc/init.d scripts should use this
  information.  e.g. source the file or:

  sed -n -e '/^NEWS_SERVER=/s/\([^=]*\)=\(.*\)/\2/p'


here's two simple examples of how this could be used:

---/etc/init.d/network---
#! /bin/sh

function extract_var() {
sed -n -e "/^$1=/s/\([^=]*\)=\(.*\)/\2/p" /etc/hostconfig
}

IPADDR=`extract_var IPADDR`
NETMASK=`extract_var NETMASK`
NETWORK=`extract_var NETWORK`
BROADCAST=`extract_var BROADCAST`
GATEWAY=`extract_var GATEWAY`

/sbin/ifconfig eth0 ${IPADDR} netmask ${NETMASK} broadcast ${BROADCAST}

/sbin/route add -net ${NETWORK} eth0
/sbin/route add -net ${NETWORK} netmask ${NETMASK} >/dev/null 2>&1
/sbin/route add default gw ${GATEWAY} metric 1
---/etc/init.d/network---

or

---/etc/init.d/netstd_init---
#!/bin/sh
#
# Start networking daemons.

function extract_var() {
sed -n -e "/^$1=/s/\([^=]*\)=\(.*\)/\2/p" /etc/hostconfig
}

NET="/usr/sbin"
ROUTER=`extract_var ROUTER`

case "$1" in
  start)
if [ $ROUTER = ROUTED ] ; then
   echo "Starting routed" ; start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --exec 
${NET}/routed -- -q
;;
fi
if [ $ROUTER = GATED ] ; then
   echo "Starting gated" ; start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --exec 
${NET}/gated 
;;
fi
  stop)
start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --exec /usr/sbin/routed
start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --exec /usr/sbin/gated
;;
  *)
echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/netstd_init {start|stop}"
exit 1
esac

exit 0
---/etc/init.d/netstd_init---


food for thought, anyway...


Craig

Bug#4020: Base shouldn't contain /var/run/utmp

[Christian Hudon]

Package: base
Version: 1.1.0-14

The newest base contains a /var/run/utmp file of length 0. When upgrading
a running system, this:

- causes the list of people currently online to be lost
- makes tools like 'w' segfault until one login occurs.

Fix : remove /var/run/utmp from base.

  Christian

PS Base shouldn't contain any files in /var/run, by definition.

Bug#4049: access permissions for sysklogd

[Daniel Quinlan]

Package: sysklogd
Version: 1.3-8

/sbin/klogd and /sbin/syslogd should be 755.

/usr/doc/sysklogd should be 644.

Bug#4048: access permissions for /usr/bin/dos

[Daniel Quinlan]

Package: dosemu
Version: 0.60.3-1

/usr/bin/dos should be mode 4755, not 4711.

Bug#4050: access permissions for dump

[Daniel Quinlan]

Package: dump
Version: 0.3-6

/sbin/dump and /sbin/restore should be 2755.

Bug#4051: access permissions for /usr/bin/fdmount

[Daniel Quinlan]

Package: fdutils
Version: 4.3-3

/usr/bin/fdmount should be mode 4755, not 4750.

Bug#4052: access permissions for /usr/bin/{mkparser, mkparserclass}

[Daniel Quinlan]

Package: bison
Version: A2.6-12

/usr/bin/mkparser and /usr/bin/mkparserclass should be mode 755, not
555.

Re: elm problems

[Miquel van Smoorenburg]

You (Dale Scheetz) wrote:
> No! Not a typo. This is the only difference between what gets executed
> when debian.rules calls for a make, and when I call for the same make.
> 
> The line in the Makefile is:
> 
>   cd lib; $(MAKE) $(MJ) -(MAKEFLAGS) all
   ^
Could it be that there is a `$' missing there just before the `(' ?

> There is no definition of MAKEFLAGS in debian.rules, or in the Makefile.
>
> Does the shell set it when debian.rules runs?

Dunno..

Mike.
-- 
  Miquel van| Cistron Internet Services   --Alphen aan den Rijn.
  Smoorenburg,  | mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]  http://www.cistron.nl/
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | Tel: +31-172-419445 (Voice) 430979 (Fax) 442580 (Data)

Documentation formats

[Ian Jackson]

Increasingly, documentation is in a generic markup format that can be
processed into various output formats either by standard tools or ones
that come with the package.

For example:
 * GNU Texinfo can be converted to Info, DVI (and hence rather large
   PostScript) and HTML.
 * The Linux FAQ comes in plain ASCII, HTML, Info, and PostScript via
   Lout.
 * The Linux HOWTOs are done in linuxdoc-sgml, which produces ASCII,
   HTML, Info and LaTeX (hence DVI and large PostScript).
 * My new dpkg manuals will be available in plain ASCII, overstruck
   ASCII, HTML and Postscript (via Lout).
 * The Perl documentation can be converted to HTML, plain text,
   manpage source (hence overstruck text and PostScript) and LaTeX
   (hence DVI and large PostScript).

We need to decide which documentation formats we wish to distribute,
and how to manage their display.  Obviously we can't distribute all of
the output formats as that will either make packages too large or
produce too many packages.

For some of the formats you can process the data `on the fly' as it is
viewed; for others (at least TeX, Lout and HTML) this is trickier as
the processing or viewing involves dumping the formatted document to a
file, or storing some kind of auxiliary data in files while it's being
processed.

Options for our policy include:
 1. Specify one or two particular preferred target formats and
distribute those.  Leave the source in the source package.  So far
we have done this with documentation in Texinfo - we leave the
.texi files in the source package and distribute only the info
files.
 2. Distribute the source only and a converter.  This has been done
with manpages, and with the Perl `pod' documentation.
 3. Distribute the source and one target format for people who don't
have or want converters.
 4. Do something fancy with Lars's documentation viewing stuff.  I'm
sure Lars will tell us about this.

My inclination is to go for 4 with 2 or 3, if that makes sense.

Ian.

Re: elm problems

[Dale Scheetz]

On Mon, 5 Aug 1996, Miquel van Smoorenburg wrote:

> You (Dale Scheetz) wrote:
> > No! Not a typo. This is the only difference between what gets executed
> > when debian.rules calls for a make, and when I call for the same make.
> > 
> > The line in the Makefile is:
> > 
> > cd lib; $(MAKE) $(MJ) -(MAKEFLAGS) all
>^
> Could it be that there is a `$' missing there just before the `(' ?
> 
Nope, that's just a typo on my part ;-)

> > There is no definition of MAKEFLAGS in debian.rules, or in the Makefile.
> >
> > Does the shell set it when debian.rules runs?
> 
> Dunno..
> 
> Mike.
> -- 
>   Miquel van| Cistron Internet Services   --Alphen aan den Rijn.
>   Smoorenburg,  | mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]  http://www.cistron.nl/
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Tel: +31-172-419445 (Voice) 430979 (Fax) 442580 (Data)
> 
> 


Dwarf

  --

aka   Dale Scheetz   Phone:   1 (904) 877-0257
  Flexible Software  Fax: NONE 
  Black Creek Critters   e-mail:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 If you don't see what you want, just ask --

Emacs per-package startup files

[Ian Jackson]

OK, so we've decided to have packages put their Emacs startup stuff in
a directory, with one file per package.

The directory obviously ought to go in /etc, and the files made
conffiles, so that the sysadmin can reconfigure things.

/etc/emacs/site-start.d ?

Ian.

Bug#4054: Missing features in terminfo database

[Michael Meskes]

Package: ncurses3.0
Version: 1.9.9e-1

It seems the ncurses terminfo database misses significant features. When
trying to display mime encoded mail I do not get the correct features.

For instance try to display the following file with 'richtext '

Test1


Test2


The first line should be centered, the second should be written in bold
face. Instead I get:

Test1 


Test2 

When looking for the problem I saw that richtext tries to read the "md"
sequence (available in /etc/termcap) but couldn't find it and thus removed
the bold feature. The same holds for center.

Michael
-- 
Michael Meskes   |_  __  
[EMAIL PROTECTED] |   / ___// / // / / __ \___  __
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  |   \__ \/ /_  / // /_/ /_/ / _ \/ ___/ ___/
[EMAIL PROTECTED]|  ___/ / __/ /__  __/\__, /  __/ /  (__  )
Use Debian Linux!| //_/  /_/  //\___/_/  //

Re: Emacs per-package startup files

[Erick Branderhorst]

> OK, so we've decided to have packages put their Emacs startup stuff in
> a directory, with one file per package.
> 
> The directory obviously ought to go in /etc, and the files made
> conffiles, so that the sysadmin can reconfigure things.
> 
> /etc/emacs/site-start.d ?

Please wait a minute.

How will these files be read.  In alphabetical or fileposition order?
Some scripts written in these might work only properly if some other
script is executed first.  I can't come up with some proper example 
but I can imagine that this might be very true.  This will force us
to scan the files several times and execute what is in there only if
some specific other scripts are executed earlier.

Sorry not native english speaker, so the above might be too cryptic,
but I see some problem here.  We might be better of with some script
modifying a file like install-info does and have some order where 
scripts can be put in that file (top, middle, bottom, or 0..9).

Erick

Re: Documentation formats

[Lars Wirzenius]

Ian Jackson (after my deletions):
>  * GNU Texinfo ... HTML.
>  * The Linux FAQ ... HTML ...
>  * The Linux HOWTOs ... HTML ...
>  * My new dpkg manuals ... HTML ...
>  * The Perl documentation ... HTML

I think I see a trend here. While HTML is not the perfect format (e.g.,
it lacks the navigation hints in Info), it is still the only common
denominator, and I guess most people will have a web browser installed
anyway.

We must still support the native versions. Not everyone will want or
prefer a web browser over Info or manual pages.

Debiandoc can handle on-line conversions.  Some of the conversions aren't
too good. For example, texi2html seems to do a better job than info2www,
and I'm told this is inherent. Thus, it would be a good idea to provide
texi2html'd versions of the Info files as optional packages.

The FAQ's, HOWTO's, and other such stuff should also be made available
as optional HTML versions, if one is currently not part of the main
package.

Summary: status quo, but provide optional HTML packages.

This leaves us with the problem of having the same documentation in
several formats installed at the same time, which is usually a waste
of disk space. This is solvable with some programming: provide tools
to identify and remove duplicate documents. It's a SMOP, as long as I
don't have to do it. :-)

-- 
Lars Wirzenius <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
Please don't Cc: me when replying to my message on a mailing list.




pgpCvVbjf1Aky.pgp
Description: PGP signature

Re: Documentation formats

[Erick Branderhorst]

> Options for our policy include:
>  1. Specify one or two particular preferred target formats and
> distribute those.  Leave the source in the source package.  So far
> we have done this with documentation in Texinfo - we leave the
> .texi files in the source package and distribute only the info
> files.
>  2. Distribute the source only and a converter.  This has been done
> with manpages, and with the Perl `pod' documentation.
>  3. Distribute the source and one target format for people who don't
> have or want converters.
>  4. Do something fancy with Lars's documentation viewing stuff.  I'm
> sure Lars will tell us about this.
> 
> My inclination is to go for 4 with 2 or 3, if that makes sense.

And get rid of the .info files, using w3-el on texi2html .texi files. Sorry
but this isn't very fast on an 8mb machine.  It might be that I don't
understand the above, but for me w3-el via texi2html on the fly is a very
fast and therefore unwanted alternative for the info-reader in emacs.  I
presume quite some others agree with me.

Erick

Bug#4017: boot disk doesn

[Bruce Perens]

---
If you haven't been able to boot, ask on debian-user for
a boot disk image. Several of our people have made one for
NCR. I'd help but I am away from the office with no access to
Linux.

Bruce



Bug#4017: boot disk doesn

[Bruce Perens]

---
If you haven't been able to boot, ask on debian-user for
a boot disk image. Several of our people have made one for
NCR. I'd help but I am away from the office with no access to
Linux.

Bruce



Uploading manpages 1.11-6 (Section 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 manpages)

[Martin Schulze]

Good night folks,

After much work on and with manpages I'll upload another set for
Debian.

-- Begin Changes --

Date: 04 Aug 96 02:04:48 UT
Format: 1.5
Distribution: unstable
Binary: manpages
Source: manpages
Architecture: source all
Version: 1.11-6
Maintainer: Martin Schulze <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Description: Section 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 manpages
 This package contains the Linux man pages for all chapters
 except 1 and 8.
Priority: Routine
Files:
 8cde4159d3feefce6db42c2af80b28db 348640 doc - manpages-1.11-6.all.deb
 a5f9e5481f094752a044c4475b4db172 26813 doc - manpages-1.11-6.diff.gz
 b18014618a2a19167a030953b54a1193 380399 doc - manpages-1.11-6.tar.gz
Changes:
 * several, also mailed to the author

-- End Changes --

I have modified many files.  If you're interested in these changes,
taka a look at the diff file please, they were too much to note every
single in the Changes.

Have a pleasant beginning of the week,

Joey


PS: As usual first in ftp.infodrom.north.de in /pub/people/joey/debian/

--
  / Martin Schulze  *  Debian Linux Maintainer  *  [EMAIL PROTECTED] /
 / http://www.debian.org/   http://www.infodrom.north.de/~joey/
/  Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for!  /

Bug#4053: a) still a.out b) script: i have no 2nd floppy

[Andreas Jellinghaus]

Package: dosemu
Version: 0.60.3-1

a) dosemu is still a.out

file /usr/bin/dos
/usr/bin/dos: setuid Linux/i386 impure executable (OMAGIC)

b) dosemu config script asks:
echo " "
echo "What size is floppy drive B:"
echo "  0 3.5inch  1 5.25inch"
read FLOPSIZE
if [ "$FLOPSIZE" != "1" ]; then
  echo "floppy { device /dev/fd1 threeinch }" >>$CONFFILE
else
  echo "floppy { device /dev/fd1 fiveinch }" >>$CONFFILE
fi

better :

echo " "
echo "What size is floppy drive B:"
echo "  0 3.5inch  1 5.25inch 2 none"
read FLOPSIZE
if [ "$FLOPSIZE" != "1" ]; then
  if [ "$FLOPSIZE" != "2" ]; then
echo "floppy { device /dev/fd1 threeinch }" >>$CONFFILE
  fi
else
  echo "floppy { device /dev/fd1 fiveinch }" >>$CONFFILE
fi


Regards,

Andreas