Tino Schwarze wrote at about 18:07:35 +0100 on Wednesday, November 25, 2009:
> On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 08:44:02AM -0600, Les Mikesell wrote:
>
> > >>>> I agree - almost every "newbie" that picks up BackupPC makes this
> > >>>> mistake - the more experienced you are with old-school config files
> > >>>> the MORE likely you are to assume changing this is all you need to do.
> > >>>> A note in the docs and/or a link to the "how to change your TOP DIR"
> > >>>> page would fix a huge percentage of installation failures.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Or just fixing it so changing the config file IS all you have to do :)
> > >>> If they need to be the same, why do we need the configuration option
> > >>> in the
> > >>> first place?
> > >> __TOPDIR__ is a token that gets substituted/replaced during an initial
> > >> install (a step that deb/rpm packagers have already done). One of the
> > >> places that the actual value is substituted is the value of
> > >> $Conf{TopDir} in the config file. But that's not the only place and
> > >> that's why you can't change it later.
> > >
> > > Well, then we could simply move it out of config.pl into the code which
> > > reads config.pl, e.g. have it preloaded into $Config...
> >
> > The installer doing the substitution also establishes and moves the code
> > to its
> > runtime location - which the packagers have put elsewhere. It is
> > approximately
> > the equivalent of wanting to change 'configure' options of some other
> > source
> > package after you've installed a packaged binary.
>
> I'm not talking about installation time.
>
> I figure it works like this:
> - someone calls BackupPC::new()
> - it takes it's patched-in $TopDir to locate config.pl
> - it reads config.pl
> - so what's $Config{TopDir} good for except for confusing users?
>
> I'd suggest just removing the setting from config.pl - the code calling
> it should already know the correct setting - it's been patched in, isn't
> it? Having it in config.pl will only confuse users since they expect it
> is easy to change - so let's config.pl reflect what's really going on:
> You cannot change it just here.
I agree - I think it is the non-working yet present $Config(TopDir)
variable that is the primary source of the confusion. I would suggest
either:
1. Changing the way loading works so that TopDir is indeed specifiable
as a config parameter
2. Removing TopDir as a config variable as Tino suggests.
Otherwise, we will continue to be flooded by emails from users making
the very logical assumption that $Config(TopDir) actually works like
any other $Config parameter, allowing you to configure TopDir. We can
all hope and bitch that people should read the HowTos/FAQs/archives
etc. but this usage is so contrary to what one expects that it is hard
to blame the user here...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Join us December 9, 2009 for the Red Hat Virtual Experience,
a free event focused on virtualization and cloud computing.
Attend in-depth sessions from your desk. Your couch. Anywhere.
http://p.sf.net/sfu/redhat-sfdev2dev
_______________________________________________
BackupPC-users mailing list
BackupPC-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net
List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users
Wiki: http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net
Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
|
