Tino Schwarze wrote at about 18:07:35 +0100 on Wednesday, November 25, 2009: > On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 08:44:02AM -0600, Les Mikesell wrote: > > > >>>> I agree - almost every "newbie" that picks up BackupPC makes this > > >>>> mistake - the more experienced you are with old-school config files > > >>>> the MORE likely you are to assume changing this is all you need to do. > > >>>> A note in the docs and/or a link to the "how to change your TOP DIR" > > >>>> page would fix a huge percentage of installation failures. > > >>>> > > >>>> Or just fixing it so changing the config file IS all you have to do :) > > >>> If they need to be the same, why do we need the configuration option > > >>> in the > > >>> first place? > > >> __TOPDIR__ is a token that gets substituted/replaced during an initial > > >> install (a step that deb/rpm packagers have already done). One of the > > >> places that the actual value is substituted is the value of > > >> $Conf{TopDir} in the config file. But that's not the only place and > > >> that's why you can't change it later. > > > > > > Well, then we could simply move it out of config.pl into the code which > > > reads config.pl, e.g. have it preloaded into $Config... > > > > The installer doing the substitution also establishes and moves the code > > to its > > runtime location - which the packagers have put elsewhere. It is > > approximately > > the equivalent of wanting to change 'configure' options of some other > > source > > package after you've installed a packaged binary. > > I'm not talking about installation time. > > I figure it works like this: > - someone calls BackupPC::new() > - it takes it's patched-in $TopDir to locate config.pl > - it reads config.pl > - so what's $Config{TopDir} good for except for confusing users? > > I'd suggest just removing the setting from config.pl - the code calling > it should already know the correct setting - it's been patched in, isn't > it? Having it in config.pl will only confuse users since they expect it > is easy to change - so let's config.pl reflect what's really going on: > You cannot change it just here.
I agree - I think it is the non-working yet present $Config(TopDir) variable that is the primary source of the confusion. I would suggest either: 1. Changing the way loading works so that TopDir is indeed specifiable as a config parameter 2. Removing TopDir as a config variable as Tino suggests. Otherwise, we will continue to be flooded by emails from users making the very logical assumption that $Config(TopDir) actually works like any other $Config parameter, allowing you to configure TopDir. We can all hope and bitch that people should read the HowTos/FAQs/archives etc. but this usage is so contrary to what one expects that it is hard to blame the user here... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Join us December 9, 2009 for the Red Hat Virtual Experience, a free event focused on virtualization and cloud computing. Attend in-depth sessions from your desk. Your couch. Anywhere. http://p.sf.net/sfu/redhat-sfdev2dev _______________________________________________ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki: http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/