setup-storage: preserve partitions until the layout changes

[Michael Tautschnig]

Hi all,

[...]
> 
> > I really understand, why setup-storage prefers the safe way, but for us the old implementation was much better.
> > Could it be possible to extend setup-storage with an preserve-lazy-unsafe option, that destroys data? Or does anyone already have a solution for this?
> 
> I include separate options for "fresh" installs in my pxe configs that
> boot FAI with the "initial" flag or whatever it is.
> 

I'm not sure whether Manuel actually wants a "lazy" preserve, or indeed the
reinstall one, which, together with proper PXE configs or some script in class/,
should work pretty well I suppose. And even if lazy is the desired way: there
must be some way to tell whether you will want to preserve the partitions or
not. If there is, include code in class/ that manipulates the config files
on-the-fly and removes the preserve_lazy text.

So why is it that I'm kind of refusing to add this new "feature" to
setup-storage: the problem is the very very small differences in the semantics
of the various preserve* options, which make it prone to both subtle
implementation errors and misunderstandings on the user side. In several ways
setup-storage by now already violates the KISS principle, and adding a new
preserve* option wouldn't be helpful in this regard.

It just seems to me that this case can also be resolved without changes in
setup-storage. Obviously that means more work for you and changes to your config
space, but I also believe that it is a site-specific requirement and therefore
best fits in your config space :-)

Best,
Michael

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