Proposed small change

[Kjetil Torgrim Homme]

Thomas Lange <lange at informatik.uni-koeln.de> writes:

> >>>>> On 30 Jul 2001 21:36:45 +0200, Kjetil Torgrim Homme <kjetilho at linpro.no> said:
> 
>     > zcat /fai/images/foo.tar.gz | $ROOTCMD tar zxf - === and here
> Why not zcat /fai/images/foo.tar.gz | tar -C $target -zxf -  ? Then
> you can skip copying /lib/lib*.so and other things to $target.

Tar was complaining about links referring to files on the installation
/ -- I don't know why.

(There is a typo, btw, a z-flag too many -- I changed the zcat to run
outside chroot as I wrote the mail :-)

>     > You could even write a function called fai_default_action which
>     > invokes the right *.DEFAULT hook.  The downside to this change is that
>     > old hook files must be updated when people upgrade FAI.
> Yes, you're right. The default behavior should not be located in
> /usr/local/share/fai, it must be included in the main script or
> lib/subroutines). But I can solve this problem.

I agree, for easier upgrading of FAI etc.

>     > This feature is only _needed_ if you want to use FAI to install
>     > something other than Debian, like Red Hat.  But it would be nice
>     > nonetheless, no?
> I'm thinking about it, and maybe it will be included in the next
> release. But FAI should not become a script language, where you can
> write installation programs for all kinds of installations.

The focus should stay on Debian Linux, but if it is reasonably easy to
support other installations (like Windows reinstallation :-), I don't
see the harm in that.

> If you look at fai_install() in rcS_fai there are many
> possiblilities which parts to skip.

It looks like one hook is called prior to each change to the
installation.  The exception is the cleanup (umount and rmdivert).

> So it will be difficult to define what's the default part to skip
> for a certain hook. So if you want to do something very different
> from the default installation sequence, you should define you own
> FAI_ACTION and write a script to to this job. This feature will also
> be included in the next release. Currently you can use the hook
> "action" for that.

Ah, neat, I didn't notice that possibilty!  It would be nice to put
_all_ functions in a separate file, so that my script can use your
utility functions (like load_keymap_consolechars) without having to
invoke the main part of the script.  I can then (in the action hook)

  . /usr/share/fai/mainroutines
  mount_debian_mirror() {
    my own routine
  }
  fai_install

to override part of your default behaviour cleanly.  (Not a very good
example, I know.)


Kjetil T.