-------- Forwarded Message -------- From: Jeffrey Hutzelman <jh...@cmu.edu> To: Marco d'Itri <m...@linux.it> Cc: jh...@cmu.edu Subject: Re: Bug#46049: local services Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:08:55 -0400
On Tue, 2011-10-11 at 19:41 +0200, Marco d'Itri wrote: > On Oct 11, Jeffrey Hutzelman <jh...@cmu.edu> wrote: > > > > > /etc/service.d -> wontfix ? Or is somebody still thinking about it ? > > > I do not expect that this will happen, ever. > > Any particular reason? > Low benefits, high cost and complexity. > Configuration files are editable for a reason. Sorry; I don't buy it. The added complexity of examining a directory full of files instead of a single file is not that high, and the benefits are significant, which is why this approach has been deployed throughout the system. In particular, it eliminates two problems, which taken together result in an intolerable situation: 1) Users wishing to add or update entries in /etc/services are forced to take manual action on every update, to merge local changes in with the new packaged database. UCF would make this a little less painful, but as you correctly point out, it can't be used here unless/until it is promoted. And, it doesn't really resolve the problem, because the user _still_ has to react to every update. 2) Maintainers needing to add or update entries in /etc/services are forced to submit a bug and wait for an updated netbase. I haven't paid attention to how promptly this happens, so I'm not suggesting that this takes too long. However, you're pretty much forced to choose between infrequent updates, which creates problems for new packages, or frequent updates, which exacerbates (1). Additionally, this puts you in the critical path for every new network-based service, which creates both a bottleneck and unnecessary work for you. I can understand not wanting to introduce much additional complexity into netbase which, after all, is both fairly simple and an important package. Personally, my preferred solution is the introduction of libnss-dir: Description: nss module to use directories (e.g /etc/hosts.d) This Name Service Switch (NSS) module works much like the 'files' service, but allows the local database to be constructed from an entire directory of files (e.g. /etc/hosts.d) instead of only a single file (/etc/hosts). . This module fully supports the ethers, hosts, networks, protocols, rpc, and services databases. It also implements passwd, group, and shadow, but use of these is not recommended except under unusual circumstances, because it may not interact well with tools such as adduser(8). However, I don't think the complexity of merging e.g. /etc/services.d is too high. Particularly, while inelegant, 'cat' is actually sufficient as a merge tool for this case. -- Jeff -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
