lynn said the following on 12/18/2011 11:05 AM:
The example we were working on was bind 9, the latest version of which is not available on Ubuntu, so he was trying to compile from source. The Ubuntu bind9 apt-get stuff creates /etc/bind for config files, openSUSE uses /etc and the official bind docs suggest /srv/named/etc. But that's just the start. The directory could be /var/lib/named or anywhere else you can think of. Then is it /etc/init.d/bind9 start, /etc/init.d/bind start, /etc/rc.d/init.d/bind9 start, service bind start, service bind9 start, service named start, /usr/sbin/named -c /etc/named.conf, start bind, start bind9, rcnamed start, /etc/init.d/named start. . .Should it run bind:bind, named:named, root:named, root something else. . .
On a mac, this doesn't arise. He said.
I think he has a good point. Is this the price we pay to be able to have it anyway we like?
In one sense yes. In my presentations I often use automobile analogies and I think one applies here. It used to be that cars were for enthusiasts, people who loved them and took them apart and put them back together and bought chrome parts and polished and enhanced and tuned and gadgeted them up. Heck, there were even stores that cater to these people. They did their own oil changes, rotated their own tires, .... all that stuff. no-one called them 'geeks'. But the auto manufacturers needed profits that that meant volume and that meant 'consumerism'. And that led to standardization and "no user serviceable parts inside"[1] and stuff that could not be maintained or modified anyway because it was a 'sealed box'. Chips rather than transistors. And so it goes; the innards get more monolithic and maybe you can't get at them to, for example, replace the batter, anyway. Its about consumerism. This guy's mistake was to try to compile Bind in the first place. If he's so mindful of the MAC then he fits the consumerist model, not the gadgeteer model. Its true that every luxury cruise liner has to have the kitchens, which are greasy and steamy, and the engine rooms, which might be as well. But that's not what the travel agents sell and the passengers are not allowed to see that part of things. When it comes down to it, we're the "Sons of Martha" http://www.mindspring.com/~blackhart/The_Sons_of_Martha.html and that guy was, at heart a Son of Mary. On most of my machines there isn't a /var/log/syslog nor a /var/log/messages. The syslog function, be it rsyslog or syslog-ng, is configured to send to a central machine which has lots of disk space for logs and the tools to examine them. Examine them? Not by human eyes but by automatic tools. Things like 'swatch' I can't think of much that's as boring as going through megabytes of syslog. I've had client which have tools that dump it all into a database and they have viewers that let them sift and sort .. and buqqer that. I don't want to look at that. Marcus Ranum talks of 'artificial ignorance' when dealing with syslogs. Ignore what you know about, the 'norm'. Anyway, on my syslog server I have lots and lots and lots of files; I break things out by service and more, so I don't HAVE to wade though a big syslog or messages file if all I want to see is when someone other than myself logged in to my workstation. The thing about the consumerist mode is that its WYSIWYG. You can't hack it about. You can't put the holding clutch from a Subaru, the powered hydraulic suspension of Citroen, ... you can't pick and chose the bits you like. And on the consumerist computers like Windows and MAC more and more gets tied down, more and more the vendor has done your thinking for you. [1] Call me a bigot but I think only two things should have "no user serviceable parts inside" stamped on them: ping-pong balls and the human head. -- The only secure computer is one that's unplugged, locked in a safe, and buried 20 feet under the ground in a secret location... and I'm not even too sure about that one" - Dennis Huges, FBI. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org