Roman Semenenko wrote: > Volker , is that something like FAI in debian ? >
Well, not quite, since I am working towards a different goal. Let me explain. I see FAI as an infrastructure for mass deployment - the more boxes you have the better. FAI is excellent software, and I would not see any point in writing something new for the same purpose. The itch that I am scratching deals with the first (and maybe only) server, the one you are going to install without having any infrastructure, no DHCP server, no nothing. While I was still using SuSE, I found myself entering IP addresses and user names into YaST over and over. It got better with FreeBSD since I could use an "install.cfg" floppy, and with RedHat since I could prepare a "ks.cfg" floppy. AutoYaST didn't help, because it is more like a macro recorder. All this only got me over installation, not configuration or customisation. I still had to prepare backups and restore them selectively on new versions, since I never knew what would have changed. It is my credo to RESTORE user data from backpu media and to CONSTRUCT configuration data from a data model. That is why I like CFENGINE so much and use it at work. What my little program (written in C so I don't need any interpreters, currently around 40 to 50 C files, one exectuable, called ConfGen) does is to execute the functions /arch/setup does (fdisk, pacman.static, grub). Then it reboots the machine and hooks itself early into the boot process and adjusts all relevant configuration files (right now: apache, dcron, cups, dnsmasq, dovecot, dyndns, ethers, fetchmail, fstab, hosts, imap, networks, nisdomainname, ntp, postfix, ppp, pppoe, printers, procmail, rc.conf, lmhosts, samba, squid, ssl, ssh, udev.rules, users incl. passwords, vsftp, xinetd, yp, plus working on a few others) in a *consistent* way. The input information is made available via a set of XML input files without redundancy (e.g. the machine name is given only once in system.xml). Documentation is only in the source code for now, but I have started to write up something since I wanted to start an OSS project *some day* anyhow. And the XML files come with an integrated DTD. I am working on this only in my copious spare time, you know :-) If there is interest for it, I'd be more than happy to make it available. Anything I write is under GPL anyway. But I have no idea what would be the best way of contribution. Setup a project on GNU Savannah? Is there a user contribution area with actual project space or a CVS in AUR? I could setup a CVS repository on my own DSL-connected box, but that would certainly require some time. Some guidance here is highly welcome. Kind regards Volker _______________________________________________ arch mailing list [email protected] http://www.archlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/arch
