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

[Jason Hellenthal]

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


Thanks

-- 

 Regards, (jhell)
 Jason Hellenthal

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