On Thu, Mar 03, 2005 at 12:34:36PM +0100, Steffen Heil said:
> Hi
> 
> > Then use a binary distribution.  Then use a binary distribution.
> > Then use a binary distribution.  Do you not get that this is already
> > being done?  It is just not the job of the clamav development team.
> > I make and distibute binary packages for Debian.
> 
> I do. And it is your great work, that I am using, since I use debian
> sarge.
> 
> However, these packages do not split between host and engine.  I
> cannot do automatic updates for the engine only.  And updateing the
> whole package blindly is not an option. Configuration may change and
> such. It could take the server out of action.

I am not sure why you think splitting out the engine into a seperate
library would be any less error prone than a regular upgrade, though.

Essentially what you are asking for is that the configuration file
should finish stabilizing (as it probably will relatively soon - we are
approaching 1.0), and the library API should stabilize, so that updates
can be made to the library independently of the binaries.

This is indeed feasible.  What this would mean would be updates to
detect new things would go in the library, but it would retain the same
API, and so could be independently updated.  That is already completely
possible with current toolsets, and in fact happens regularly - that is
how dynamic linking is possible, really.  However, I don't think you
want to blindly update that either - that is what testbed machines are
for.  What if there is an off by one error, or a memory leak, or some
other bug in the new library version?  It could result in disastrous
lost email or crash the server, just as an upgrade of all the binaries
could.

> > What you want exists - go look for it.
> 
> What exists is great, but imho it could be better. If just the engine
> where separated...

So, I see the feasability, and the project may yet go that way, but I
don't see that it would make upgrades any cleaner or easier,
necessarily.  I for one wouldn't want all of my production machines
blindly upgrading to a new library version overnight, but maybe that's
just me.
-- 
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|  Stephen Gran                  | Captain Penny's Law:  You can fool all  |
|  [EMAIL PROTECTED]             | of the people some of the  time, and    |
|  http://www.lobefin.net/~steve | some of the people all of the  time,    |
|                                | but you can't fool mom.                 |
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