Re: problesm with emulators/redhat/motif

["Cory C. Albrecht" <cory.spam@fenris.cjb.net>]

From:           	Ted Unangst <tedu@zeitbombe.org>
> On Fri, 31 Oct 2003, Cory C. Albrecht wrote:
> > For something as important as linux emulation (and freebsd & aout, 
> > too), shouldn't the kern.emul.* settings have been put in the 
> > etc/sysctl.conf one gets via cvs? I know that kern.emul.* is mentioned 

> /etc is never updated by cvs.  do you think /etc/passwd should be updated 
> as well?

I understand perfectly the reason for no automagic updating of /etc. 
However, when one cvs's the tree, the default spot is in /usr/src. IOW, 
/etc will _not_ get clobbered because the new configs are in 
/usr/src/etc. Thus I can get the new configs, compare it to my current 
configs and make any necessary changes manually. In fact, this is what 
http://www.openbsd.org/faq/upgrade-minifaq.html section 1.9 says you're 
supposed to do.

So since nothing gets clobbered, what is the problem with adding these 
3 new lines to src/sys/etc/sysctl.conf in the CVS tree?

> > on the daily changelog page, but it is buried way down the list (it 
> > would be more helpful if those entries were dated) so how would I know 
> > about those new sysctl settings since I usually only get the kernel 
> > source?

> you read one of the 900 emails people have written about the issue, 
> including my very first one in which i told everybody about the change and 
> what to do about it.

First off, how can I search for something if I don't even know that it 
exists?

Secondly, there aren't 900 emails on the subject, there are about 9, in 
about 3 threads, according to the searcher at sigmasoft.com.

Regardless of that, when a new setting is introduced that affects 
something major like the various OS compatibility options in the kernel 
or system-wide settings, a sysadmin should _not_ have to search through 
multiple months of a mailing list with 300-450+ emails per month to 
find out what to do. The setting _should_ be in the src/etc/* files 
available via CVS. That is the logical place to look, after all, for 
new settings, and it is where the upgrade mini-FAQ tells us to look.
--
Cory C. Albrecht
http://www.sentex.ca/~corya/
A competent and reliable dishwasher never starves.
 -- Robert A. Heinlein