Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-05-10 Thread Stephan Beal
Could i convince one of the devs more familiar with the symlinks bits
refine Joerg's explanation below into one of the embedded docs? It's a
pretty good explanation/summary, IMO.


On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 8:33 PM, j. van den hoff
veedeeh...@googlemail.comwrote:

 On Fri, 09 May 2014 19:45:01 +0200, Matt Welland estifo...@gmail.com
 wrote:

  FYI, beware that there may be a bug with symlinks support in the more
 recent versions of fossil. I haven't reported it as I haven't had time to
 reproduce it but a couple of users have complained that when they
 clone/open a fossil that has allow-symlinks = true that the symlinks are
 replaced by the pointed to data in the check out. If they check out an
 older node then check out trunk the data is replaced by the expected
 symlinks.


 I'm not sure whether there is a bug here (except the one noted at the end
 of this mail).
 my reading of `fossil help set' and a small test I've done right now with

 This is fossil version 1.29 [5e47d555e4] 2014-04-30 16:35:21 UTC

 (note to developers: the `This is' in the version message should
 go away in my view -- at least it would allow more seamless copy+paste
 not disrupting the syntax of the text into which one copies ;-))

 seems to verify this behaviour:

 1. allow-symlinks off (default):

 a)
 if the symlinks are ADDed and checkedin,
 content is tracked across the links, i.e. as far as fossil is concerned
 everything acts as if the actual files where local to the repo:
 changes are noted, checkouts overwrite the actual files, not the symlinks.
 this seems in accord with the documentation and sure is useful for the
 purpose of tracking disseminated config files, e.g.

 b)
 if this repo is cloned and opened, indeed the original files materialize
 in the checkout, i.e. the symlink information is lost (probably never
 was there in the repo?). I presume(...) this also does not contradict
 the documentation. this seems to be the behavior you mention.
 but this is not wrong per se. whether this behavior is ideal
 is another question. one probably could argue for restoring symlinks at
 this
 point.

 2. allow-symlinks on:

 a)
 if the symlinks are ADDed and checkedin,
 content is NOT tracked across the links, i.e. modifications of the
 linked files are not noticed by fossil and cannot be checked in.
 the content of the checkedin links (e.g. what you see with `fossil cat')
 just is the path to the linked files. this seems in accord with the
 documentation

 b)
 if this repo is cloned and opened, links materialize using verbatim
 the path stored as content in the original repo.

 all this seems quite consistent to me also 1.b) might not be what one
 would prefer.
 the only probably real bug for me is that in 2.b) above the generated
 symlinks point _verbatim_ to the same location used in the original
 creation of the links (instead of always using
 the absolute paths). here is the catch:
 if the links were not generated with absolute pathnames in the first
 place, the links in the clone usually will
 point to outer space (i.e. the links are invalid) which is totally useless
 I'd say.


 j.



 On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 10:00 AM, Stephan Beal sgb...@googlemail.com
 wrote:

  On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 6:30 PM, j. van den hoff 
 veedeeh...@googlemail.com
  wrote:

  modified. so my understanding is when 'on' the softlinks are just
 maintained
 in the repo while when 'off'  (the default) the system should behave
 like
 what you describe:
 track the changes across the softlinks (i.e. the real content) and
 update
 _that_ content when doing a `fossil up'. or am I missing something?



 i didn't think about that, but i'm almost certain (almost!) you're right.
 That's my understanding from having skipped over symlinks support in
 libfossil so far. That means that symlinks support is not what you want
 for
 this purpose. Real symlinks to the files, but symlinks support explicitly
 turned off, should serve the basic purpose - having the content of those
 files in the repo. IIRC, if symlinks support is off, checking out the
 repo
 initially will create a file under the checkout dir with the contents of
 the linked-to file. i think.

 --
 - stephan beal
 http://wanderinghorse.net/home/stephan/
 http://gplus.to/sgbeal
 Freedom is sloppy. But since tyranny's the only guaranteed byproduct of
 those who insist on a perfect world, freedom will have to do. -- Bigby
 Wolf

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http://gplus.to/sgbeal
Freedom is sloppy. But since tyranny's the only 

Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-05-09 Thread Joseph Mingrone
I was asked off the list to share what I ended up using.  It was really
quite simple in the end.  I somehow missed the setting allow-symlinks.
With this turned on, I just create symbolic links in the local tree and
now, on the rare occasions that I pull, the link ins't wiped out, but
the file pointed to be the link is updated.  I can foresee the
permission issues mentioned by others, but I rarely pull, so I hope I
can easily deal with those issues.  So, ~/scm/host_config.fossil/
contains the repository (host_config.fossil) and symbolic links to files
all over the system (/etc/ and /usr/local/etc/ mostly).  So far this has
worked well for my needs, but I haven't messed with it too much so far.

Thanks for all your replies.

Joseph

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Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-05-09 Thread Stephan Beal
On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 5:30 PM, Joseph Mingrone j...@ftfl.ca wrote:

 can easily deal with those issues.  So, ~/scm/host_config.fossil/
 contains the repository (host_config.fossil) and symbolic links to files
 all over the system (/etc/ and /usr/local/etc/ mostly).  So far this has
 worked well for my needs, but I haven't messed with it too much so far.


If that works, great :). i think that's the first time anyone's reported a
painless solution to that problem - thanks for letting us know.

-- 
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http://wanderinghorse.net/home/stephan/
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Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-05-09 Thread j. van den hoff

On Fri, 09 May 2014 17:30:02 +0200, Joseph Mingrone j...@ftfl.ca wrote:


I was asked off the list to share what I ended up using.  It was really
quite simple in the end.  I somehow missed the setting allow-symlinks.
With this turned on, I just create symbolic links in the local tree and
now, on the rare occasions that I pull, the link ins't wiped out, but


I don't think that this is the difference between allow-symlinks 'on' and  
'off'?


the link seems to be _never_ wiped out (independent of that setting), but  
when the setting is 'on'
`fossil' just does not care for the actual content of the file the link  
points to
(notably, it will not show anything with `fossil changes' even if the  
link(ed file) is
modified. so my understanding is when 'on' the softlinks are just  
maintained
in the repo while when 'off'  (the default) the system should behave like  
what you describe:

track the changes across the softlinks (i.e. the real content) and update
_that_ content when doing a `fossil up'. or am I missing something?



the file pointed to be the link is updated.  I can foresee the
permission issues mentioned by others, but I rarely pull, so I hope I
can easily deal with those issues.  So, ~/scm/host_config.fossil/
contains the repository (host_config.fossil) and symbolic links to files
all over the system (/etc/ and /usr/local/etc/ mostly).  So far this has
worked well for my needs, but I haven't messed with it too much so far.

Thanks for all your replies.

Joseph

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Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-05-09 Thread Stephan Beal
On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 6:30 PM, j. van den hoff
veedeeh...@googlemail.comwrote:

 modified. so my understanding is when 'on' the softlinks are just
 maintained
 in the repo while when 'off'  (the default) the system should behave like
 what you describe:
 track the changes across the softlinks (i.e. the real content) and update
 _that_ content when doing a `fossil up'. or am I missing something?


i didn't think about that, but i'm almost certain (almost!) you're right.
That's my understanding from having skipped over symlinks support in
libfossil so far. That means that symlinks support is not what you want for
this purpose. Real symlinks to the files, but symlinks support explicitly
turned off, should serve the basic purpose - having the content of those
files in the repo. IIRC, if symlinks support is off, checking out the repo
initially will create a file under the checkout dir with the contents of
the linked-to file. i think.

-- 
- stephan beal
http://wanderinghorse.net/home/stephan/
http://gplus.to/sgbeal
Freedom is sloppy. But since tyranny's the only guaranteed byproduct of
those who insist on a perfect world, freedom will have to do. -- Bigby Wolf
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Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-05-09 Thread Matt Welland
FYI, beware that there may be a bug with symlinks support in the more
recent versions of fossil. I haven't reported it as I haven't had time to
reproduce it but a couple of users have complained that when they
clone/open a fossil that has allow-symlinks = true that the symlinks are
replaced by the pointed to data in the check out. If they check out an
older node then check out trunk the data is replaced by the expected
symlinks.


On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 10:00 AM, Stephan Beal sgb...@googlemail.com wrote:

 On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 6:30 PM, j. van den hoff veedeeh...@googlemail.com
  wrote:

 modified. so my understanding is when 'on' the softlinks are just
 maintained
 in the repo while when 'off'  (the default) the system should behave like
 what you describe:
 track the changes across the softlinks (i.e. the real content) and
 update
 _that_ content when doing a `fossil up'. or am I missing something?


 i didn't think about that, but i'm almost certain (almost!) you're right.
 That's my understanding from having skipped over symlinks support in
 libfossil so far. That means that symlinks support is not what you want for
 this purpose. Real symlinks to the files, but symlinks support explicitly
 turned off, should serve the basic purpose - having the content of those
 files in the repo. IIRC, if symlinks support is off, checking out the repo
 initially will create a file under the checkout dir with the contents of
 the linked-to file. i think.

 --
 - stephan beal
 http://wanderinghorse.net/home/stephan/
 http://gplus.to/sgbeal
 Freedom is sloppy. But since tyranny's the only guaranteed byproduct of
 those who insist on a perfect world, freedom will have to do. -- Bigby Wolf

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-=-
90% of the nations wealth is held by 2% of the people. Bummer to be in the
majority...
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Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-05-09 Thread j. van den hoff
On Fri, 09 May 2014 19:45:01 +0200, Matt Welland estifo...@gmail.com  
wrote:



FYI, beware that there may be a bug with symlinks support in the more
recent versions of fossil. I haven't reported it as I haven't had time to
reproduce it but a couple of users have complained that when they
clone/open a fossil that has allow-symlinks = true that the symlinks are
replaced by the pointed to data in the check out. If they check out an
older node then check out trunk the data is replaced by the expected
symlinks.


I'm not sure whether there is a bug here (except the one noted at the end  
of this mail).

my reading of `fossil help set' and a small test I've done right now with

This is fossil version 1.29 [5e47d555e4] 2014-04-30 16:35:21 UTC

(note to developers: the `This is' in the version message should
go away in my view -- at least it would allow more seamless copy+paste
not disrupting the syntax of the text into which one copies ;-))

seems to verify this behaviour:

1. allow-symlinks off (default):

a)
if the symlinks are ADDed and checkedin,
content is tracked across the links, i.e. as far as fossil is concerned
everything acts as if the actual files where local to the repo:
changes are noted, checkouts overwrite the actual files, not the symlinks.
this seems in accord with the documentation and sure is useful for the
purpose of tracking disseminated config files, e.g.

b)
if this repo is cloned and opened, indeed the original files materialize
in the checkout, i.e. the symlink information is lost (probably never
was there in the repo?). I presume(...) this also does not contradict
the documentation. this seems to be the behavior you mention.
but this is not wrong per se. whether this behavior is ideal
is another question. one probably could argue for restoring symlinks at  
this

point.

2. allow-symlinks on:

a)
if the symlinks are ADDed and checkedin,
content is NOT tracked across the links, i.e. modifications of the
linked files are not noticed by fossil and cannot be checked in.
the content of the checkedin links (e.g. what you see with `fossil cat')
just is the path to the linked files. this seems in accord with the
documentation

b)
if this repo is cloned and opened, links materialize using verbatim
the path stored as content in the original repo.

all this seems quite consistent to me also 1.b) might not be what one  
would prefer.

the only probably real bug for me is that in 2.b) above the generated
symlinks point _verbatim_ to the same location used in the original  
creation of the links (instead of always using

the absolute paths). here is the catch:
if the links were not generated with absolute pathnames in the first  
place, the links in the clone usually will
point to outer space (i.e. the links are invalid) which is totally useless  
I'd say.


j.




On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 10:00 AM, Stephan Beal sgb...@googlemail.com  
wrote:


On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 6:30 PM, j. van den hoff  
veedeeh...@googlemail.com

 wrote:


modified. so my understanding is when 'on' the softlinks are just
maintained
in the repo while when 'off'  (the default) the system should behave  
like

what you describe:
track the changes across the softlinks (i.e. the real content) and
update
_that_ content when doing a `fossil up'. or am I missing something?



i didn't think about that, but i'm almost certain (almost!) you're  
right.

That's my understanding from having skipped over symlinks support in
libfossil so far. That means that symlinks support is not what you want  
for
this purpose. Real symlinks to the files, but symlinks support  
explicitly

turned off, should serve the basic purpose - having the content of those
files in the repo. IIRC, if symlinks support is off, checking out the  
repo

initially will create a file under the checkout dir with the contents of
the linked-to file. i think.

--
- stephan beal
http://wanderinghorse.net/home/stephan/
http://gplus.to/sgbeal
Freedom is sloppy. But since tyranny's the only guaranteed byproduct of
those who insist on a perfect world, freedom will have to do. -- Bigby  
Wolf


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Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-05-09 Thread Stephan Beal
On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 8:33 PM, j. van den hoff
veedeeh...@googlemail.comwrote:

 b)
 if this repo is cloned and opened, indeed the original files materialize
 in the checkout, i.e. the symlink information is lost (probably never
 was there in the repo?). I presume(...) this also does not contradict
 the documentation. this seems to be the behavior you mention.
 but this is not wrong per se. whether this behavior is ideal
 is another question. one probably could argue for restoring symlinks at
 this
 point.


FWIW, i've had to struggle with that question in libfossil and i
(currently) feel that the current behaviour follows the Principal of Least
Surprise, in that it's consistent: no symlinks means no symlinks.


 all this seems quite consistent to me also 1.b) might not be what one
 would prefer.
 the only probably real bug for me is that in 2.b) above the generated
 symlinks point _verbatim_ to the same location used in the original
 creation of the links (instead of always using
 the absolute paths). here is the catch:
 if the links were not generated with absolute pathnames in the first
 place, the links in the clone usually will
 point to outer space (i.e. the links are invalid) which is totally useless
 I'd say.


Doesn't that mean that it supports both relative and absolute, and it's up
to the user to choose which one he wants? There are use cases for both,
IMO. (That said, i never was a big fan of having symlink support in fossil!)

-- 
- stephan beal
http://wanderinghorse.net/home/stephan/
http://gplus.to/sgbeal
Freedom is sloppy. But since tyranny's the only guaranteed byproduct of
those who insist on a perfect world, freedom will have to do. -- Bigby Wolf
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Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-05-09 Thread j. van den hoff
On Fri, 09 May 2014 20:42:06 +0200, Stephan Beal sgb...@googlemail.com  
wrote:



On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 8:33 PM, j. van den hoff
veedeeh...@googlemail.comwrote:


b)
if this repo is cloned and opened, indeed the original files materialize
in the checkout, i.e. the symlink information is lost (probably never
was there in the repo?). I presume(...) this also does not contradict
the documentation. this seems to be the behavior you mention.
but this is not wrong per se. whether this behavior is ideal
is another question. one probably could argue for restoring symlinks at
this
point.



FWIW, i've had to struggle with that question in libfossil and i
(currently) feel that the current behaviour follows the Principal of  
Least

Surprise, in that it's consistent: no symlinks means no symlinks.



all this seems quite consistent to me also 1.b) might not be what one
would prefer.
the only probably real bug for me is that in 2.b) above the generated
symlinks point _verbatim_ to the same location used in the original
creation of the links (instead of always using
the absolute paths). here is the catch:
if the links were not generated with absolute pathnames in the first
place, the links in the clone usually will
point to outer space (i.e. the links are invalid) which is totally  
useless

I'd say.



Doesn't that mean that it supports both relative and absolute, and it's  
up

to the user to choose which one he wants? There are use cases for both,


I agree. there is no best choice here.

IMO. (That said, i never was a big fan of having symlink support in  
fossil!)


well, the possibility to do that symlink trick for tracking config files  
all over the place

might be handy for some.






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Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-05-09 Thread Stephan Beal
On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 9:02 PM, j. van den hoff
veedeeh...@googlemail.comwrote:

 On Fri, 09 May 2014 20:42:06 +0200, Stephan Beal sgb...@googlemail.com
 wrote:


  IMO. (That said, i never was a big fan of having symlink support in
 fossil!)


 well, the possibility to do that symlink trick for tracking config files
 all over the place
 might be handy for some.


That's what has always bothered me about the symlinks support: it's
inherently non-portable, opens up tricky questions about how it should
behave, and it might be handy for some (it's not generally needed - i've
never used it, and never missed it). i do, however, agree that (like
diff-follows-rename) if you have a need for it, it's a handy feature to
have.

-- 
- stephan beal
http://wanderinghorse.net/home/stephan/
http://gplus.to/sgbeal
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Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-05-09 Thread j. van den hoff
On Fri, 09 May 2014 21:07:59 +0200, Stephan Beal sgb...@googlemail.com  
wrote:



On Fri, May 9, 2014 at 9:02 PM, j. van den hoff
veedeeh...@googlemail.comwrote:


On Fri, 09 May 2014 20:42:06 +0200, Stephan Beal sgb...@googlemail.com
wrote:



 IMO. (That said, i never was a big fan of having symlink support in
fossil!)



well, the possibility to do that symlink trick for tracking config files
all over the place
might be handy for some.



That's what has always bothered me about the symlinks support: it's
inherently non-portable, opens up tricky questions about how it should
behave, and it might be handy for some (it's not generally needed -


again agreed. but it does no harm to have it (as long as one does not  
demand too much

of it).


i've
never used it, and never missed it). i do, however, agree that (like
diff-follows-rename) if you have a need for it, it's a handy feature to


the diff-follows-rename problem seems in a different league for me. and
the how it should behave issue has a clear answer in this case (at least
there would be a clear majority vote ;-))



have.




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Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-04-29 Thread Stephan Beal
On Mon, Apr 28, 2014 at 10:15 PM, Joseph Mingrone j...@ftfl.ca wrote:

 Thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts.  Since I
 won't be moving these files around too often, I think I will give Fossil
 (along with Tripwire) a go at this.  Does Fossil have something
 equivalent to

another_unamed_scm config core.worktree ../../

 which allows you to separate the repository from the source tree?


No - the checkout db MUST currently be in the top-most checkout dir. In
developing libfossil i have seen that this limitation is purely one of
convenience, and one of the eventual features will be to allow the checkout
db and its files to live in different places. That said, it will be some
time before that's implemented because much cause assumes that checkout db
is in the top-most source tree (in fact, that's how fossil finds the
checkout in the first place, and it's not clear how that convenience could
be implemented if they are separate).

-- 
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http://wanderinghorse.net/home/stephan/
http://gplus.to/sgbeal
Freedom is sloppy. But since tyranny's the only guaranteed byproduct of
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Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-04-28 Thread Joseph Mingrone
Thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts.  Since I
won't be moving these files around too often, I think I will give Fossil
(along with Tripwire) a go at this.  Does Fossil have something
equivalent to 

   another_unamed_scm config core.worktree ../../

which allows you to separate the repository from the source tree?

Joseph

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Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-04-28 Thread Andy Goth

On 4/28/2014 3:15 PM, Joseph Mingrone wrote:

Thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts.  Since I
won't be moving these files around too often, I think I will give Fossil
(along with Tripwire) a go at this.  Does Fossil have something
equivalent to

another_unamed_scm config core.worktree ../../

which allows you to separate the repository from the source tree?


Perhaps I misunderstand your question, but Fossil already separates your 
repository database file from your checkout directory.


mkdir -p repos checkout
fossil new repos/project.fossil
cd checkout
fossil open ../repos/project.fossil

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Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-04-24 Thread Chad Perrin
On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 12:23:29AM -0400, Ron Wilson wrote:
 On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 9:38 AM, Will Parsons varro@nodomain.invalidwrote:
 
  This kind of stuff isn't a project, and you don't
  need the extra stuff that Fossil (or Git, Mercurial, Bazaar,
  Subversion, or CVS) provide.  I've tracked system files for over a
  decade with RCS (and before that with SCCS) and see no reason to
  change.
 
 
 I disagree.  Very often system changes have to be coordinate across several
 config files. Most distributions have admin tools to take care of this, but
 don't track the history of the changes. For most uses, this is fine.
 
 Where I work, the IT people already use a tool like Tripwire to monitor the
 status (including ownership and permissions) of system critical directories
 and files. Another part of this tool is used to reset the permissions,
 ownership, etc of these files when changes are made. Because of this, they
 can - and do - use Fossil to track system configuration changes.
 
 By using this combination of distribution provided tools, a few custom
 tools, the Tripwire like tool and Fossil, they actually have more and
 better control of configuration. And they save the company several $10k per
 year in licensing fees for commercial system management suites.

What are the chances you could produce a description of how this setup
is used such that it would provide a howto for setting up similar
systems in other people's networks, or convince someone else to write
such a thing?  This could make for an excellent article somewhere.

-- 
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
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Re: [fossil-users] Tracking System Configuration Files - Best Practices

2014-04-22 Thread Stephan Beal
On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 5:55 PM, Joseph Mingrone j...@ftfl.ca wrote:

 Is Fossil an appropriate tool for tracking system configuration files?


For for user-specific ones, IMO, and then not for everything, e.g. SSH
likes certain files to have certain permissions, and fossil does not do
permissions except for the +x bit.

Some people have tried to use fossil to store stuff from /etc before, but
they have always ended up requiring extra scripts to fix
permissions/ownership (fossil only knows, in effect, a single user, and
that is you).

Summary: it's not the right tool for the job of storing system-level config
files, primarily (IMO) because of ownership/permissions.

-- 
- stephan beal
http://wanderinghorse.net/home/stephan/
http://gplus.to/sgbeal
Freedom is sloppy. But since tyranny's the only guaranteed byproduct of
those who insist on a perfect world, freedom will have to do. -- Bigby Wolf
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