Re: new sysinstall

[Richard Coleman <richardcoleman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Robert Garrett wrote:
> to replay an install, you could just replay the xml data, sent to the 
> packages back. fully customized install scripts would be very easy to 
> create. Packages could be built for ports that integrate fully with 
> the cm utility. so for once and for all managing a huge number of
> opensource boxes wouldn't be a complete nightmare.

I like the idea of using xml data to replay the build.  You still need 
an infrastructure like Jumpstart (Sun) or Kickstart (Redhat) in which to 
do the initial build (from cd or remote install machine) as well as 
handle the "replay" of the data.  But using xml to structure the 
post-install configuration could simplify the creation of the 
post-install scripts.

Unfortunately, the FreeBSD ports system is too unstructured and gets in 
the way of doing this right.  Too many options for building ports are 
buried in the make options (i.e. make WITH_GTK2=yes, etc).  You often 
have to dig in the Makefile to find them since they are never described 
in the pkg-descr file (pet peeve of mine).  Although I primarily use BSD 
systems, I'm very envious of the package systems of most Linux distibutions.

Richard Coleman
richardcoleman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx