> -----Original Message-----
> From: Josh Paetzel [mailto:josh at tcbug.org]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 4:36 PM
> To: tclug-list at mn-linux.org
> Cc: Chuck Cole; Dan Rue; Mike Miller
> Subject: Re: [tclug-list] FreeBSD coherence
>
> >
> > Seem both feasible and desirable to make some sort of
> after-the-fact "rule
> > checker" for Linux to self-enforce such a discipline and detect when
> > something new is contrary.  Might need some heuristics in any case, but
> > that tool would preserve the option to take exception as well
> as the check
> > for anomalies.  I think I'd prefer the rule checker since scope and
> > completeness become verifiable and not just an "implied mystique" of the
> > OS.
> >
> >
> > Chuck
> >
>
> Are you suggesting that it's easier to have a tool that tells you
> things are
> in the 'wrong place' than to just put them in the right place in
> the first
> place?  That seems counter-intuitive to me, it's always less work
> and more
> robust to do it right the first time than to do it wrong and have a
> second-pass try and fix it.

One must believe himself sufficiently omniscient for that.  I'm still too
low on the learning and retention curve.


> There is no 'implied mystique' in the FreeBSD ports tree.
> LOCALBASE is set
> to /usr/local, everything in the ports tree defaults to
> installing under that
> hierarchy.  A port *can* override LOCALBASE, and in very rare
> occassions it's
> permitted....for instance, if the port installs a kernel module
> of some sort
> it has to be able to make it's way in to the root
> filesystem....but the vast
> majority of the 18,000+ apps in the ports tree simply do not put anything
> outside of /usr/local and it manages to happen without having to somehow
> clean up after the fact.

I'm way too much of a newbie to have such clairvoyance and/or experience
with this, and too much a skeptic to believe that human or other error can't
creep in before, during, or after a mod.

For example, I still prefer to have my hard drive do its own error detection
and correction, and gave up doing integrity checks by hand several weeks ago
:-)

Which part of "verification" am I missing?   :-)


Chuck