[csw-maintainers] cswclassutils fails in a zone

[James Lee]

On 07/02/09, 21:15:23, Philip Brown <phil at bolthole.com> wrote regarding Re:
[csw-maintainers] cswclassutils fails in a zone:

> On Sat, Feb 07, 2009 at 01:04:35PM +0100, Trygve Laugstøl wrote:
> >
> > That's too bad as it make any package that depend on CSWclassutils
> > unusable in zones if you want to keep your global zone clean (as long as
> > you use sparse zones).

> If you're doing that, then you're not using "sparse zones" right!

> The whole point of "sparse zones" is to SHARE stuff between zones.
> especially packages!

The *OS* files are shared, e.g. /usr.  I want my zones to be distinct,
*especially* the *add-on* software in /opt.  (Don't we all agree
/usr/local is wrong?)

I can have 2 zones doing very different tasks and keep /opt
tailored to each task.  I can have someone independent with root
access to a zone (package installs) that wants to be unaffected by
the software changes in other zones.  I can have different versions
of the same software, either because one zone is stable production
installation and another is development test of a new version.  I
can have 2 zones providing a continuous service between than that
I update in steps thus always keeping one zone running.


> What is "not clean" about installing the packages to the global zone?

It's not clean because the traditional way to make a new zone is
to copy the global zone.  To create a new zone that is fresh, one
needs to keep the global zone close to an original install.
(I think the new method is to make a template zone early and ZFS
clone that for new zones - I'm not quiet there with this myself.)

I like to keep the global zone as a management zone and do all
work in sub zones.


Trygve, I agree this is a major problem for cswclassutils.




James.