Bad experiences with distros (was Re: [H-GEN] CRUX (A programmers linux distro))

Greg Black gjb at gbch.net
Thu Aug 5 06:17:07 EDT 2004


On 2004-08-05, Adrian Sutton wrote:

>> Yes, of course you need to decide between RCS, SCCS, CVS, arch,
>> Subversion, darcs, perforce, etc.  Then you need to learn how to
>> use the chosen tool.  And then you need to learn to actually use
>> it every time.  But these are small things, in comparison to the
>> pain that people seem to put themselves through with this stuff.
>> Maybe somebody could do the "how to use revision control in your
>> regular system administration" talk at a Humbug meeting one day
>> soon?
> 
> Yes please!  I was going to comment about how nice it must be to live 
> in such a fantasy world where those concepts work, work well and are 
> actually worth the effort, but asking for someone to teach me how to do 
> it is a much better option.  Personally, my solution is to clone the 
> entire hard drive every so often and then after a reinstall copy back 
> the things I think of and feel are safe to just copy back and set up 
> the rest of the stuff from scratch again.

I think the approach I outlined will turn out to be much more
productive in the long run.  Obviously, it's of no value if it's
only done once or if it's done badly or half-heartedly.  But it
can do wonders over time as you upgrade systems through many
versions.

> I am however planning to upgrade my main server from OS X 10.2 to 10.3 
> soon and it would be good to avoid having to do it properly so that 
> next time I don't have to remember how I got DNS, DHCP, SSH, HTTPS, 
> IMAPS, fetchmail and who knows what else running how I wanted it.

Exactly.  Well, modulo a little edit in the area of "avoid" ...

> Even if a talk doesn't come out of it, would someone be able to spare 
> some time to impart their experiences and knowledge in this area for my 
> benefit please?

Why not try to attract the attention of the talks maestro and
get him to invite a suitably-qualified Humbuger or three to make
a presentation?  Of course, it's always possible to bend the
ears of suitable people at Humbug meetings if no talk happens.

Cheers, Greg




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