Renee Danson writes: > I think maybe more background is needed: > We later realized that installing a location involved doing things that > couldn't happen when the nwam service first starts: we needed to be able > to write to the root filesystem. So we thought maybe we could give this > network/location service another job: make it depend on filesystem/usr, > so when it is started, we know that we have a writable filesystem.
OK; that makes sense. > Now we come to Anurag's question. The problem presented by this solution > is that the location service can't come online until nwamd has finished > installing the location configuration data (either writing files to a > pre-defined path, or, preferably, changing service properties), because > it coming on line is effectively the signal to all those services to go > read the new config. So if we also use it to signal nwamd that it's okay > to begin installing the location, that signal to nwamd must be synchronous. Another way to look at this is that when network/location goes "online" there has to be *some* configuration information available. However, it doesn't actually have to be the "final" configuration. (In a dynamic system, what's "final" anyway?) If you're able to handle dynamic changes at any point in time, then why not allow network/location come up and go "online" with some default configuration (perhaps one that locks the system down), and then have nwamd refresh or restart network/location as soon as it learns something new? That way, you don't have to worry about network/location; just make it depend on filesystem/usr, and let it come up when it's ready. (You can decouple it further by having nwamd write the location information to a place that network/location knows about, and then have it attempt to signal the service. If the service is up, then the refresh will do the job. If it's not, then when the service eventually comes up, it'll set the location as expected.) > Does this background explanation help? Yep. -- James Carlson, Solaris Networking <james.d.carlson at sun.com> Sun Microsystems / 35 Network Drive 71.232W Vox +1 781 442 2084 MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757 42.496N Fax +1 781 442 1677
