Re: Removal of sysinstall from HEAD and lack of a post-install configuration tool

On Dec 26, 2011, at 9:13 PM, Ron McDowell wrote:

> Doug Barton wrote:
>> The story so far ...
>> 
>> sysinstall was removed from HEAD in October. I (and others) objected on
>> the basis that at this time there is no replacement for the post-install
>> configuration role that sysinstall played. More sysinstall components
>> were then removed. Then the old version of libdialog (which sysinstall
>> used) was removed. Thus at this point it's not possible to easily
>> restore sysinstall.
>> 
>> So my question is, how much do you care? Is lack of that functionality
>> in HEAD something that we care about? 
> 
> We have around 90 web servers running 8.2p5 right now [and yes, I did update the lot on Christmas Eve but that's a different story] and they will not be upgraded to 9.0 until/unless the post-install functionality that was lost by the removal of sysinstall is reintegrated in some way.  I also complained about it and was told in effect, "too bad."  Everyone who commented said sysinstall caused more problems than it solved, although I've been using it for any system changes I needed that it was capable of doing for as long back as I can remember, and my first FreeBSD box was v2.2.
> 
> I think removing any functionality that was in a previous release without providing an equal-or-better alternative is a bad idea, and that needs to be considered more carefully in the future.
> 
> So this is not just a +1 vote, it's a +90.

I hate to steal Devin's thunder, but…

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-rc/2010-October/002077.html

It's been around for a while and does many of the things needed by the sysinstall 'post-install' replacement (minus having a registry of commands vs services to pick from to configure with a slightly more humanized interface *and it's written almost purely with shell logic and built-ins, plus is widely tested and adopted in other BSD distros!*.

Most of the other stuff is trivial (configuring an interface, a package installer/configuration tool, etc), and if someone actually said "hey -- I'll help you get it done!" then yes I'd do it, maintain it, and cherish it. Offer is on the table for a committer who really wants this task done.

Thanks,
-Garrett