Re: handling configuration files
Re: handling configuration files
- Subject: Re: handling configuration files
- From: Fritz Anderson <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2011 08:47:17 -0500
On 5 Jul 2011, at 7:17 PM, Joe Damato wrote:
> Any hints for dealing with config files? I've seen package management
> systems in other environments that allow you to mark a packaged file
> as a config file so that it is not overwritten on upgrade. Maybe
> something like that is possible with package maker and I'm missing it?
The situation is probably influenced by the preference that applications not have installers at all, unless privileged system-wide resources like kernel extensions are involved. The preferred way to do it is to carry the default files (or the means to construct them) inside the application package, and have the application install them on first run.
* Installation is guaranteed to be in the context of a user who wants to run the app. This includes privileges and whatever configuration might vary among OS versions or users.
* The application has unlimited discretion on how to modify and place the configuration files. That includes not replacing existing files, but also preserving user settings while adding new ones, which isn't completely possible in your scenario of ignore-all-or-replace-all.
* The application is free to put up initial-configuration UI, and it will be presented to someone who actually knows the answers (remote administrators often don't).
* Placement gets done in a privilege environment that matches the one in which the application will actually be used.
(I'm sure there are other reasons, but these are the ones that occur to me.)
— F
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