Essentially, you want a CVS (or equivalent tool) for the system
administrator. This could be a project management tool for OS binary or
source releases and updates.
The CVS concept would be able to manage the synchronization with current
source as it does now, and could include binary.
Then you need:
1a. A place to store specifications for each system configuration
1b. A place to specify each port, options and flags required, per system
1c. Delivery/timing/synchronization parameters for each system or group
of systems.
2. A flag in each independent component to indicate binary replacement
or source recompile.
3. A flag for each component indicating backward compatibility or not.
4. A way to synchronize non-backward compatible upgrades
5. Port like compile code to bin upgrade and/or build new binaries
6. A way to indicate component upgrades that cause cascade(s) of
upgrades/recompiles, and which those are.
It appears that many of the components to build such a system exist in
partial or full form. The problem I have in going deeper is that my
understanding of many parts of FreeBSD is not very deep, so I can't tell
if my proposal is a valid starting point.
Comments?
BillN
Poul-Henning wrote:
It's what people are used to, but it is not what they want.
It would be much better to invest time in developing a configuration
management system that allows the system administrators of FreeBSD
installations to do their job more effectively than to spend time
giving them the tool they know inwards and outwards is not an
effective way to do their job.
The assignment is simple, and with creative thinking maybe the solution is
also:
Bring to system administration what source code version
control brought to programming.
Merry Xmas,
Poul-Henning
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