Eric Winger wrote: > Can't I even "Depend" on a package and then fine tune its configuration > though?
I don't think you can depend upon a package and tweak its conffiles. It would be interesting to be able to do that and it certainly makes sense from an object oriented inherit and modify viewpoint. Frank suggested building your own package which completely replaced the original package and naming it autofs-$erico or something similar and if you are up for it that would work very well. I do that in a couple of places, but not for autofs. Some packages can be renamed and tweaked with little effort. Others require more effort. But I realize that recompiling the package can make you nervous for critical and obtuse applications like NFS. I have the same problem as you and have solved it but unfortunately my solution is probably a little heavy for your needs. I install system configuration scripts which I call a 'sysconf' package. These scripts run both at system boot time and by cron. The first thing they do is rsync a new copy of themselves from our "gold" servers ensuring that they are the latest available. Then they run to configure all of the little bits of the system like /etc/auto.master which locally we need configured in a particular way. As packages are normally upgraded through the life of a system I train people to always say 'Y' to the replace a conffile question. Sure this may leave the system in a generic and locally unworkable state. But the file is updated to follow the package to the latest version. After any particular update that a question like that is asked I train people to always run our 'sysconf' script which configures all of the little bits of the system, including conffiles, which need to be tweaked up. This leaves the system in a locally configured good state and we are done. The sysconf scripts must be smart enough to handle reconfiguring these files and the *running* system in place. Because it runs by cron this will fix any host that gets accidentally left in a partially configured state. Or one that the user left in a broken state. By running at boot time it means that a host that is powered off for a long time will be brought up to the latest local configuration when it is powered back on. Bob
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