SLES9sp3 <classes> merging problems

24 May 2006

      I am having difficulty in getting my classes to merge together properly.
(i have to duplicate entries to get them read or, re-order them causing
other entries to be dropped, etc)

I have a  rules.xml file that does a custom script to snarf cmdline opts that
define a SITE and a NODETYPE variable.  From that, i get inclusion of 3 primary
profiles:

   base.xml
   site-@custom1@.xml
   node-@custom2@.xml

Within each of these files are some classes options that pull in other files
from {conffiles}/classes/[Base|Site@custom1@|@custom2@]/

But, the resultant merged profile often has only partial data.  and the y2log
file shows that it didn't even bother to notice some of the class inclusions
in the files above.  (it does show that it processed the 3 primary .xml files).

E.G.  I have:

<profile>
...
  <install>
    <classes config:type="list">
      <class>
        <class_name>Base</class_name>
        <configuration>Host.xml</configuration>
      </class>
      <class>
        <class_name>Base</class_name>
        <configuration>UserDefaults.xml</configuration>
      </class>
<!-- These above two fail to get incorporated or acknowledged in y2log -->
      <class>
        <class_name>Base</class_name>
        <configuration>Groups.xml</configuration>
      </class>
      <class>
        <class_name>Base</class_name>
        <configuration>Sysconfig.xml</configuration>
      </class>
<!-- Several other intervening class files *DO* get read and merged -->
      <class>
        <class_name>Base</class_name>
        <configuration>Host.xml</configuration>
      </class>
      <class>
      <class>
        <class_name>Base</class_name>
        <configuration>UserDefaults.xml</configuration>
      </class>
<!-- *BUT* if if i re-declare the exact same two failing class entries
      from the top, they NOW get read and merged here ?! -->
(these duplicated lines weren't in the original file and y2log showed it
 never bothered to look for Base/Host.xml or Base/UserDefaults.xml)
...

I can't find any documentation showing that classes need to be in a specific order
or anything else, *BUT* one of the other files that has just 2 class inclusions
works fine, but another with a single entry doesn't work, unless i include the
exact same <class>..</class> entry 3 times!?

Are there known issues with the classing system for this version?  If so, any
useful workarounds or debugging features that would help?

thanks,
--stephen
-- 
Stephen Dowdy  -  Systems Administrator  -  NCAR/RAL
303.497.2869   -  sdowdy@ucar.edu        -  http://www.ral.ucar.edu/~sdowdy/