[708] in Info-AFS_Redistribution
Re: does "package" work to maintain AFS files?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Wallace Colyer)
Wed Apr 8 18:46:06 1992
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 17:56:54 -0400 (EDT)
From: Wallace Colyer <wally+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: Info-AFS@transarc.com
Cc: kneuper@hermes.chpc.utexas.edu (Stephen Kneuper)
In-Reply-To: <9204082006.AA10211@hermes.chpc.utexas.edu>
The answer is yes sorta. You would have to have D entries for every
directory leading up to the one being maintained in afs.
D /afs
D /afs/andrew.cmu.edu
D /afs/andrew.cmu.edu/system
D /afs/andrew.cmu.edu/system/gamma/
D /afs/andrew.cmu.edu/system/gamma/pmax_ul4
D /afs/andrew.cmu.edu/system/gamma/pmax_ul4/local
Then you could use regular package files to update software from your
NFS mountpoint or the local disk.
DR /afs/andrew.cmu.edu/system/gamma/pmax_ul4 /usr/local/bin
I once used package to create a symbolic link mirror of our user and
binary filesystem when we switched from afs rooted at /cmu to /afs. It
was about 25meg of symbolic links.
For /usr/local we use a locally developed program called depot (not the
same as The NIST Depot. They were separate project and did not know
about each other until the names had been used too many places).
Depot breaks the software environment up into collections, but then
integrates the collections so that the users only see one consistent
environment. It creates the environment by pulling collections in from
a variety of locations and can either copy the files off a remote
filesystem or make symbolic links to them at a directory, file or
collection level of granularity. So, if the workstation maintainer
wants the gnu-emacs collection on the local disk all that need be done
is add a the line, gnu-emacs.mapcommand: copy, to a configuration file.
To save disk space they can specify that for any collection copied to
the local disk, the man and doc directories will be linked.
This could also maintain the type of environment you are talking about.
We use it to manage both the environments in afs and environments on the
local disks of workstations.
It allows a large central environment to be easily maintained, but at
the same time individual workstations can be customized easily to the
hearts content.
If you are interested the sources can be found on:
export.acs.cmu.edu [128.2.35.66]
pub/depot
We are finishing a new paper about it which should be put in place in
the next couple days. Depot has really helped us manage our
environment. We foresee it being able to extent to manage the
entire workstation (thanks to the guys at Pitt who opened my eyes), but
a great deal of work is needed to make that
possible.
-Wallace
