Shawn Walker wrote:
> * Packages cannot depend on it (meaning they *must* pre-define
> defaults for all options)

What's the default hostname?
What's the default system private key?
What's the default HTTP proxy?
Which management server should my management proxy connect to?
... et cetera.

I'm all in favor of having as many good defaults as possible, but there 
are some things that are essential to the operation of the software (be 
it system software or application software) that need to be customized 
for the local environment.  Yes, they could mostly be set using the 
usual "control panel" type user interfaces, but good 
Out-Of-Box-Experience suggests that the user should be led through the 
key settings rather than being forced to manually find them in the 
control panel.

> * That administrators have some easy way to record that configuration
> so that when re-deploying to other systems they don't have to go
> through the same process.

Absolutely!

(This is one reason that I'm a fan of centralized configuration 
repositories like SMF and the Windows registry, because there are 
straightforward and consistent ways to import and export configuration 
settings in bulk.)

_______________________________________________
pkg-discuss mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/pkg-discuss

Reply via email to