[xen-tools] Re: Outstanding bugs/requests for 3.0?

[Steve Kemp]

On Wed, Nov 29, 2006 at 11:57:58AM +0000, Neil Wilson wrote:

> My main problem is with the hooks and roles system.

  But they are the best part for me at least!

> In my view hooks should restrict themselves to the absolute minimum
> require to create a copy of the operating system that will boot
> properly and is accessible without a console. It shouldn't have the
> cf2engine installed by default for example.

  That is something that I do agree with, and I have moved the cfengine
 installation into a role.  I'd added that into the hook without
 thinking it through in advance as a result of a wish list bug.

> Roles on the other hand are tailoring scripts to get the distribution
> to do particular things.

  Agreed.

> It annoys the devil out of me that the hooks are run *again* on a tar
> or disk image copy.

  I guess this is a side-effect of the way the hooks do everything.

  It seems obvious to me that we need some things to run all the time
 otherwise it wouldn't be possible to setup the hostname/ip/etc.

  I guess there are two solutions here:

    1.  Add "--no-hooks" and make that the default if --tar/--copy is
    used.

    2.  Always run the hooks, but exit each one early if its work is
       done.  So for example "makedev" wouldn't be invoked if there were
       something already present in /dev.

  I could easily add the former, but the latter would need a while to
 consider add the tests and early exits.  I guess there could be a case
 for "mandatory hooks" and "additional hooks", but I'd be unsure of
 how to manage them.

> I also wonder whether the install/removal of packages in the hooks
> could be generalised so that they end up being a set of
> include/exclude options to debootstrap. Debootstrap does a good job of
> stopping daemons starting and handling the fakechroot, and it seems to
> make sense to leverage that rather than have to do it all again in
> your own scripts.

  Definitely not.  If only because debootstrap is not global.  I
 use it a lot, definitely, but mandating it breaks the ability to
 install/configure other distributions such as gentoo and fedora core.

  Certainly rpmstrap duplicates most of the required options, but I'm
 very reluctant to start making things more Debian-specific even if
 that is what I use.

> For example, Ubuntu doesn't install cron as part of its install
> routine. Hooking that without access to the debootstrap include
> facility is a right royal pain.

  Surely that can be handled in an ubuntu hook, or role with only
 a call to "installDebianPackage cron"?  That should get the 
 dependencies etc correct?

> FWIW I found both Ubuntu Dapper and Edgy to be annoyingly incomplete
> as Xen domU servers. Etch on the other hand is sublime.

  Agreed.  (Although I mostly stick to sarge for the moment.)

> I haven't used the CVS version of the tools, so forgive me if some of
> these concerns have already been addressed.

  The cfengine has, but the others are new and useful.  Thank you.

Steve
-- 
http://www.steve.org.uk/