>>>>> On Fri, 17 Jun 2011 10:12:50 -0400, Jeff Johnson <[email protected]> said:

...
JJ> You run the script under cron.

How do you (safely) install a cron script on every platform that has rpm
installed?  How do you select the period at which rpm itself should be
run?

The non-cron way would be to execute the script inside net-snmp on first
hit or using a net-snmp alarm, and place the results in
/var/net-snmp/hrmib; this actually seems like a wiser solution to me as
it avoids the platform specific cron issues and can be internally
configured for "run only when someone requests data" or "run every X minutes".

JJ> I don't see any "user intervention" on the "portable" solution path
JJ> that are insoluble.

I never intended to imply it's insolvable.  But until solved, the patch
is incomplete and can't be applied because it's not fully self-contained.

JJ> Yes you will need to add to packaging

We need to always support two methods of installation (ok, 3):

1) via rpm:
   1a) rpm -U ...net-snmp.rpm
   1b) yum install net-smp           (taken care of by the vendor)

2) via make install
   ./configure
   make
   sudo make install

#1 is easy.  #2 is what we need to solve *before* applying the solution.

JJ> All that's needed is to create/unlink a file and stamp the install
JJ> time onto the file. This is _NOT_ hard code to write, nor is it
JJ> risky.

That's cool too, and I know modern packages like 'etckeeper' rely on
those hooks.  How far back to do they date?  Hopefully far?  Is the
directory to drop the hooks in consistent across all implementations of
rpm (or determinable easily at runtime)?

JJ> Its the wrong engineering to link an rpmdb (and Berkeley DB)
JJ> into net-snmp.

That's probably arguable.  I won't argue it, because I agree with you.
But it shouldn't be wrong to link to a library in general.  Else, why
would it be in a library?  The problem is that librpm changes so dang much.

JJ> I'd say differently: net-snmp does _NOT_ control its own
JJ> distribution mechanism. Look at "MeeGo" in your example above:
JJ> that's a distro vendor, not you (as a net-snmp devel), controlling
JJ> the distribution.

No, we expect #2 above to work mostly anywhere with a devel environment
(not having looked into meego development much, but I assume they have
something like a scratchbox that would allow this even if it's not an
end-device target).

JJ> What is needed is a direction and a decision to change. That (imho)
JJ> must come from net-snmp, not from RPM, or from distro vendors, who
JJ> are entirely free to rematch and do whatever they wish (and vendors
JJ> WILL do whatever they choose to do …)

We *can't* affect every platform out there, and more importantly, we
can't assume that every platform will change.  Whatever solution we come
up with *must* be self-contained.  We have to make it so 'make install'
is all that is needed regardless of the platform.

JJ> I've sent this patch 3 times now. I'd like a clear call that you
JJ> WILL integrate the patch, and then I can/will generate the patch and
JJ> the "portable" script and even take on the tedious explaining of a
JJ> deep dark innocuous change as needed.

I'd happily agree to it, if it solves the issues I'm worried about.
Hopefully I've explained them well enough (it wouldn't surprised me if I
haven't).  I don't have sole authority, however, and thus it needs to be
a group decision.  So others may have different opinions (though if
they're silent then we'll win :-)


JJ> I have a duty and obligation (in my personal ethic) to try to "fix"
JJ> a software flaw that I created.

The fault is ours for not interacting with you when you originally
submitted the patch.  I agree: my bad.
-- 
Wes Hardaker
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