[RFC][Change-Request] Create usefulness in rc.subr etc/rc.conf.d/*.conf namespace.

[Devin Teske]

On May 8, 2011, at 1:13 PM, Garrett Cooper wrote:

> On May 8, 2011, at 12:13 PM, Jason Hellenthal wrote:
> 
>> 
>> List, - Please reply-to freebsd-rc at freebsd.org
>> 
>> Recently I have been going over some changes in the configurations that 
>> are possible with the rc subsystem and to my dismay I have found some 
>> inconsistencies with in particular the way rc.conf.d directory is 
>> processed and the arguments that are supplied to load_rc_config so I have 
>> patched it up...
>> 
>> Let me explain:  As determined by rc.subr load_rc_config, config's from 
>> rc.conf.d are loaded by the scripts $name as an argument to load_rc_config 
>> and thus only the name being parsed is is available to be used in the 
>> rc.conf.d directory. Why is this bad ? Its not! but it is inconvenient as 
>> the user has no direct way to know that a variable used by nfsd is also 
>> needed by mountd or the same for various other scripts in the rc.d 
>> directory. At this time these config's are explained to be available for 
>> the user to utilize by rc.conf(5) but yet without much knowledge of the 
>> inner workings of the rc subsystem it would be quite the feat to do.
>> 
>> 
>> The attachment[1] keeps this functionality the same while introducing a 
>> more convenient approach for the user to modularize their configuration 
>> however they see fit within a couple constraints that work very well. 
>> 
>> 
>> What does it do ?: As stated above, current functionality is undisturbed 
>> while allowing the user to create config's by any name they so desire as 
>> long as it has an extension of ".conf", also introducing the ability to 
>> turn a configuration file off by using chmod(1). You can turn nfsc1.conf
>> off/on by simply chmod [-/+]x etc/rc.conf.d/nfs1.conf
>> 
>> 
>> Why ? Simple. How many times have you been bitten by disabling something 
>> in the rc.conf file and left to discover what you just disabled was also 
>> used by another daemon but that daemon is now not starting ? This is a way 
>> to virtualize your configuration allowing you to add multiple _enable= 
>> lines to different configurations for different roles. For instance 
>> rpcbind is used by both samba and nfs*. With this you can add 
>> rpcbind_enable to both a configuration for samba and nfs and when you 
>> disable one service you know that you have not disabled a dependent for 
>> another.
>> 
>> 
>> This is a small addition that fixes currently broken undesirable aspects 
>> of the configuration system that deals with the rc.conf.d directory with a 
>> SysV style init approach that is just as flexible. This should apply 
>> cleanly to current and stable/8 & 8.2-RELEASE systems. Once more feedback 
>> has been received Ill update the manual page with any suggestions 
>> regenerate the patch to accommodate and file a PR.
>> 
>> 
>> 1). http://patches.jhell.googlecode.com/hg/rc.subr_modular_conf.patch
> 
> 	Doing:
> 
> find /etc/rc.conf.d/ -type f -name '*.conf' -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -perm +111 | while read _modular_conf; do
> 	debug "Sourcing $_modular_conf"
> 	. "$_modular_conf"
> done
> 
> 	might be better. There's some more magic that could ultimately be done to make this more secure/robust using "-print0" | xargs, but it's up to you how you might want to go about solving that problem.
> 	Also, I don't know if depending on a .conf file to be executable is necessarily the best course of action.
> 

First, let me add that I really like the idea. This makes it akin to our /usr/local/apache2/conf.d/ directory where we place our various configs by many names, but always ending in `.conf'.

I'm anticipating the day where I can have /etc/rc.d/foo.conf and /etc/rc.d/bar.conf, each configuring multiple (likely unrelated) services.

Better still, /etc/rc.d/jail1.conf, /etc/rc.d/jail2.conf, etc. etc. (I think you just made my -- and everyone else whom uses jails -- day/week/month/year).

However, I agree with GC that depending on a .conf file to be executable is a bit non-standard, even if it is sourced like a shell-script (though I can understand the historical heritage as /usr/local/etc/rc.d/ used to require both `.sh' suffix and executable bits; but that is not to condone treating `rc.conf.d' like `rc.d' in any way).
-- 
Cheers,
Devin Teske


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