[OpenAFS-devel] OSX Preference Pane

[David Botsch]

I would say openafs is a system-wide thing.                                     
                                                                                
However, it would be great if an administrative user, by clicking on something  
perhaps in the system preferences pane, could manually start the client after   
the computer is already up (instead of having to either reboot or open up a     
terminal).
O
On Wed, Apr 12, 2006 at 09:59:31AM +0200, Franco Milicchio wrote:
> 
> On Apr 12, 2006, at 06:33am, Ragnar Sundblad wrote:
> 
> >>- /private/etc/hostconfig
> >>  Must contain a line OPENAFS=-YES- (or -NO-) in order to set the  
> >>start-at-boot flag, like all other services. It makes no sense to  
> >>have a service that cannot be turned on and off at boot like all  
> >>the other (IMO).
> >...
> >
> >I think putting it in /etc/hostconfig is a generally bad idea. I  
> >didn't
> >get if either our program or the user was supposed to change it, but
> >either of them may fail in writing it back correctly and that would  
> >render
> >the entire machine more or less broken. I also think I have heard  
> >apple
> >saying that they wanted to migrate away from /etc/hostconfig, but I  
> >can't
> >find that written down anywhere.
> >
> >You should rather have a preference file of your own, either in
> >/Library/Preferences, ~root/Library/Preferences or in /var/db/ 
> >openafs/etc.
> >
> >Arla's configuration/control program has a start/stop button that  
> >also writes
> >to /usr/arla/etc/startatboot (I think), which contains either "yes"  
> >or "no",
> >and if it is "yes" Arla will start at boot.
> 
> Well, we can put the preference wherever we want. This issue is  
> deeper than we think though.
> 
> I proposed to move from StartupItems to a launchd item, since the  
> first has been ``deprecated'' by Apple. This proposal in my opinion  
> has to be taken into account for mainly two reasons. The first, since  
> Apple says ``we strongly recommend'' to use launchd for tiger and  
> following OSs, see http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/ 
> Conceptual/BPSystemStartup/index.html. The second, a StartupItem is  
> just system-wide, running at boot or not. No specific per-user  
> control or run-on-demand.
> 
> For the first reason, I think launchd wouldn't be a bad idea. For the  
> second reason, if we provide a per-user setting, we must copy the  
> startupitem to ~/Library/StartupItems, and provide there a start-at- 
> boot flag.
> 
> Everything is possible, but if you make me know which solution is  
> preferred, I can change the panel. Now I think we could:
> 
> - at installation, copy a system-wide startup item
> - introduce StartupItem/OpenAFS/startAtBoot which contains  
> OPENAFS=YES or NO (remove from hostconfig)
> - introduce a preference pane with per user preferences and system  
> wide settings
> - copy the startup item to the user's home, and make the script  
> flexible with system/user settings
> 
> Another question: is afs system wide or per-user? To me, it makes no  
> sense to have a per-user setting, but I don't know other thoughts...
> 
> Any proposal/recommendation?
> 
> 
> --
> Franco Milicchio <milicchio@dia.uniroma3.it>
> 
> The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds.
> The pessimist fears it is true.      [J. Robert Oppenheimer]
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> OpenAFS-devel mailing list
> OpenAFS-devel@openafs.org
> https://lists.openafs.org/mailman/listinfo/openafs-devel

-- 
********************************
David William Botsch
Consultant/Advisor II
CCMR Computing Facility
dwb7@ccmr.cornell.edu
********************************