[csw-maintainers] cswclassutils: location of template init scripts

[Maciej (Matchek) Blizinski]

On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 8:31 PM, Philip Brown <phil at bolthole.com> wrote:
> Revisiting a topic that has come up a few times, but I think people
> have more awareness of now:
>
> currently, our wiki for cswclassutils suggests the initial location
> for the init script should be
>
> INITSMF = /etc/opt/csw/init.d/cswfoo
>
> I think it would be better for our users, if we standardize on a
> location under /opt/csw
> For example, /opt/csw/etc/init.d
>
> This would be beneficial in multiple ways:
>
> 1. It makes it a teenie bit easier to support NFS-shared /opt/csw
> 2. It makes it possible to support sparse zones, where /opt/csw is
> "sparse" in addition to /usr, etc.
>
> I dont see any drawbacks.
>
> Additionally, I think we should write up that the location is presumed
> to be READ-ONLY, and that any tweaking that needs to be done, should
> be facilitated by referencing some other configuration script, either
> directly, or indirectly.
>
> (An example of the "indirect" case, would be when the program it
> calls, already references some config file that covers all startup
> options)
>
> Comments, please?

There's a drawback I can see: it goes against the unification of
$(sysconfdir) (in our case: /etc$(prefix)). It is true that the init
files, since they're owned by packages, are read-only, and they could
live in $(prefix)/etc instead of /etc$(prefix).  This basically means
that some parts of $(sysconfdir) are read-only and some are
read-write, but I don't think that it's enough a reason to split them
into separate directories.

ad 1.: I understand that your argument is that moving the read-only
bits to a shared read-only directory might make it easier to maintain,
but I don't see how it makes it easier: These files are only installed
by packages, and cannot (must not) be modified by users: each package
upgrade will revert any changes.  Therefore it makes no difference
whether it's in a read-only directory or not: either way, the init
file is and remains what pkgadd has installed there.  Correct me if
I'm wrong.

ad 2.: sparse zones with shared /opt/csw are currently supported fine
with /etc$(prefix).

Maciej