Re: [RFC] Rewriting sade(8)

On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 10:01 AM, Devin Teske <dteske_at_vicor.com> wrote:
> Randi and I were discussion the possibility of having sysinstall
> "remember" what you did and then able to write out a suitable
> `install.cfg' file that could be subsequently used to perform a human-
> less automated install with the same settings.

[...]

> On Thu, 2010-04-08 at 12:48 +0000, Kris Moore wrote:
>> On 04/08/2010 16:30, Marian Hettwer wrote:
>> > On Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:53:48 +0000, Kris Moore<kris_at_pcbsd.org>  wrote:
>> >
>> > It's not nice to hijack a topic, but this is way to interesting for me, so
>> > I do it anway :)
>> >
>> :) I didn't mean to hijack either, was trying to discuss advantage of
>> having backend
>> as a executable vs a library which can't be used standalone without
>> front-end.
>> This would in effect lock you completely into front-end logic, which may
>> not meet
>> a users specific needs, even though backend can do what user wants.
>>
>> >> This has a few advantages, in that the backend can be used stand-alone
>> >> for scripted installations and also provide great flexibility
>> >> to the front-end developer. They don't need to worry about performing
>> >> any of the actual installation logic, they just provide a way
>> >> for users to select their installation options, generate a configuration
>> >>
>> >
>> >> script, and let the backend run with it.
>> >>
>> > scripted installation!
>> > Are you able to do a pxeboot, nfsroot and then scripted installation?
>> > Are those scripts portable to FreeBSD or PC-BSD only?
>> > Could you give me a hint where to find them?
>> >
>> > TIA,
>> > Marian
>> >
>>
>> Correct, every install it does is a fully-scripted installation, and
>> it can be used with pxeboot, or in a custom mfsroot image easily.
>> Supports ZFS, glabel, gmirror, geli, GPT, gpart, vanilla FreeBSD
>> installs, etc.
>>
>> http://trac.pcbsd.org/browser/pcbsd/trunk/pc-sysinstall
>>
>> Checkout examples/README for all the gory details of config-file
>> generation.
>>
>> One caveat, the version in trunk is being very actively worked on by
>> myself at the
>> moment to prepare for 8.1, needs more docs, etc ;)

1. Please don't top post :).
2. install.cfg is just a hacky / non-style(9) compliant way of
specifying how to do an install. If you could separate out sysinstall
into separate utilities and have each of the pieces execute as shell
commands with predefined variables at install, you'll be lightyears
ahead of where sysinstall is today.
3. sysinstall(8) does a lot of crud that it shouldn't do for all
systems. Powerusers won't use sysinstall because does too much crap;
all of the items that sysinstall does behind the scenes to get a
working system should be properly documented in a doc article.

Thanks,
-Garrett