[NCLUG] Bad question I know!

[Michael Dwyer]

mike cullerton wrote:
> 
> on 4/14/01 11:00 PM, Sean Reifschneider at jafo-nclug at tummy.com wrote:
> 
> > I pretty much build everything from source, but I do so in the context of
> > an RPM.  The RPM combines the pristine source to the package, with any
> > patches, and a recipe describing how to build the binaries, and what the
> > resulting list of files and directories are which get installed.

You mean kinda like what "./configure; make; make install" does?

> > It's building from source, in a reproducable way...  The production
> > sysadmin in me finds comfort in that.
> 
> i'm not sure i grok what you're trying to tell me. are you using SRPM's? is
> the main benefit that you "know" what gets installed and where?

I think I understand what Sean is saying.  My Slack systems more or less 
continue to grow and mutate until, once every few years, I must start
over.
The six headed monster must be put to sleep and reborn.

The difference is that I don't see a problem with this.  Starting fresh
is
such a nice experience to me.  You find all the mistakes you made
before,
and get to do them right this time.  All those temporary experiments
just
go away... At the same time, I move the machine up to better hardware,
and 
take care of all the security issues found in the previous OS
distribution.

But then, I'm a firm believer in K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid), so 
rebuilding typically isn't such a big ordeal.  Finally, Sean mentioned
that it was difficult to back-out installs made without the benefit of
RPM -- well, no.  Not really.  When I want to remove Apache, I can just
delete /usr/local/apache -- cuz I made it install there.
(--with-layout=Apache)
instead of all over the drive.

But then, this is all personal preference.  Take with grain of salt.
> 
> what's the diff between getting an SRPM and patching it, and getting the
> latest tarball?
> 
> i'm thinking, that your systems have more stuff on them (not to mention
> users probably, which mine don't), and i'm wondering if that makes it more
> more beneficial to do it your way for your systems. my system has named,
> apache, mysql, php, openssh and sudo pretty much. also, i only allow access
> 'from everyone' to port 80. everything else is limited to my home ip
> addresses (guarded by my dogs when i'm not there :) and a couple specific
> ip's from work.
> 
> the limited number of processes on my box helps me keep it straight in my
> head (in terms of what's where), and i just make sure i have the latest
> stuff running.
> 
> perhaps more importantly for me, is that my way _forces_ me to think about
> what i'm doing. i'm still trying to understand it all, and this forced
> interaction helps me learn what's really going on.
> 
>  -- mike cullerton
> 
> _______________________________________________
> NCLUG mailing list
> NCLUG at nclug.org
> http://www.nclug.org/mailman/listinfo/nclug