Re: System configuration during install

[Tom Tromey]

>>>>> "David" == Lawrence, David (STEI) <address@hidden> writes:

David> I did not mean to offend by offering the example, I was only
David> trying to outline my desire within the terms I understood best.

Don't worry, I don't think you offended anybody.

David> If possible, I would like to support the widest range of
David> systems possible with the constraint that I don't as yet
David> understand how they vary.  Would you be able to suggest a
David> reference that I could review about portable configuration
David> techniques for adding and removing dameons to a system's
David> initialization process?

I doubt there's any such reference :-(

David> I would think that other developers of system daemons must have
David> already faced this issue when porting to autotools.  Maybe you
David> could also suggest a project I could inspect that needs to
David> perform this function?

I think most people handle this by writing a document for their
project that says "once `make install' is done, here is how you can
set things up..." -- with instructions on a system-by-system basis (or
even relatively generic, assuming the user understands his own
system).

System integrators like Debian or Red Hat then put the appropriate
commands into their spec (or whatever) files.

Most programs aren't system daemons.  Requiring special steps for
these is the status quo.  That is, I think the state of the art here
is fairly primitive.

FWIW I think Hari is right when he says that most people would be
suprised if `make install' changed the boot-time configuration of
their machine.  RPM builders would be especially suprised -- they use
`make install' while building RPMs.

Tom