OS X Server (not the client) has more than 30 net-facing packages,
each of which expect to find the computer's current IP address in a
different configuration file.
I suppose there's some very good reason for all those packages to not
read the IP address from /L/P/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist
and
I just fail to understand it ...
These 30-odd packages are designed by outsiders to run under all
different version of Unix/Linux (and sometimes Windows too). They
don't use any system services that depend on things that Apple does in
it's own strange ways. So they don't understand Apple's way of noting
IP addresses, they just keep their data in flat files on disk.
Apple does it this way because it means that it doesn't have to do any
programming when a new version of the package comes out, it just
compiles it for Darwin. It's cheaper, it's faster, and it doesn't
involve testing and debugging. It also gives users the freedom to
compile and install their own version if they want to update faster
than Apple issues updates. Of course, it does have the drawback you
mentioned.
Simon
--
Simon Slavin Fylde Building Room C11
Computing Development Officer 01524 65201 x 93569
Psychology Department
University of Lancaster
