On 2019-08-07 at 16:59, Andrei POPESCU wrote: > On Mi, 07 aug 19, 09:28:12, The Wanderer wrote: > >> I've begun to wonder whether it might be worth the overhead to set up >> some type of mechanism to let packages which define such >> machine-specific IDs A: declare the fact, in a central location which > > Do you mean /etc? :)
It would probably go under /etc/, but that's not what you seem to mean. >> the sysadmin of a machine where that package is installed can easily >> check, and B: define an automated way of performing the appropriate >> update / regenerate step in a way which covers all known places where >> the ID needs to be updated. > > 1. Delete the contents of /etc (all of it) > 2. If a package doesn't find its "stuff" in /etc it regenerates it from > defaults. > > http://0pointer.net/blog/projects/stateless.html Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think that seems to cover all cases. For example, in the case where defining (I think it was) an mdadm array embeds the then-existing hostname into the array definition, such that the array will only be auto-assembled when it is detected on a machine with that same hostname, it's not enough to simply wipe /etc/hostname; you also need to arrange for the new hostname, once generated, to be inserted into the definition of the existing array. That's probably more relevant to the case of changing the hostname of a single machine than of cloning a machine, since I'm hard pressed to think of a plausible case for using RAID on a machine which is to be cloned (and also since I think it's possible to explicitly omit the hostname when creating the array, such that the array will auto-assemble on any system), but there's no guarantee it's the only example of something which needs to be updated outside of /etc/ in order for things to keep working. At a glance, there are also unique LVM IDs in /boot/grub/grub.cfg, though whether those would need to be changed when cloning I don't know. I also vaguely recall having once run into issues related to filesystems being by default configured to mount by unique ID rather than by device path, which thus didn't mount anymore once the filesystem had been cloned from its original drive onto a different drive which had a different ID, but it's been too long for me to dredge up any specifics. -- The Wanderer The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
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