apache 1.3.26?

[Christopher Murtagh]

On Mon, 24 Jun 2002, Graham Leggett wrote:
>> There are *many* more benefits > from doing this than any you would
>>get with an RPM.
>
>To be honest I don't agree with this, mainly because of a single
>showstopper: Six months from now, when someone else takes over the
>system, they have to spend ages figuring out "your" special server
>layout. No matter how good they are, there is a good chance a mistake
>will be made, and something will break - which is not acceptable.

 My server setup (in terms of how Apache is configured) is hardly
'special', and anyone who couldn't figure it out in less than 5 minutes
shouldn't be a sysadmin.

 Also, when I do *anything* to the configuration of my servers, it is all
documented. Everything from where I put the source, what version(s) any
server is running, what modifications were done, what patches applied,
etc.. Not doing this is neglect.

>Exactly. Someone else makes sure the files are tracked. Someone else has
>ensured this combination of packages works.

 Excatly *what* combination is that? The problem is, you don't know right
off the bat. When you compile from source, you do.

>>  2) You get the software configured the way *you* want/need.
>
>Which is exactly the problem. In 95% of cases the RPM solves the problem
>at hand. Doing it "your way" solves the exact same problem, but in some
>custom system. It's not maintainable, or futureproof.

 Nonsense. Just about any real sysadmin I know will compile Apache from
source rather than use an RPM, and many of these folks have been doing
this sort of work for decades.

>>  3) You can modify the code should you need to.
>
>You should not need to modify the code. If you do need to, make the
>change and submit it to the project for inclusion in the main project.
>Systems are not maintainable otherwise.

 Hello!!?!? I think you have missed the point of OSS entirely. There are
many reasons to modify source other than enhancements other folks might
want/need. We have built an enterprise system that the configuration is
not likely to be repeated elsewhere, and we have tuned our software to
work with our system. This is what the beauty of OSS is.

 BTW, I did mention the change that I had made in the off chance that
someone on the htDig list needed it as well. It turns out it was in their
FAQ and they didn't seem to have any problems telling people where to
change the source and didn't provide an alternative RPM.

>This is rubbish. Seriously, there is no way in hell I'm going to
>remember how I configured something six months ago,

 Document, document, document.

> and in the majority of cases I'm not likely to configure it better than
>the RPM did in the first place.

 I wouldn't go saying this to your boss if I were you (unless your boss
isn't a geek). If a staff member told me that they were not likely to be
able to configure Apache than the RPM, I certainly wouldn't want them
working on my system and would probably try find a way to get rid of them.

Cheers,

Chris

-- 

Christopher Murtagh
Webmaster / Sysadmin
Web Communications Group
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec
Canada

Tel.: (514) 398-3122
Fax:  (514) 398-2017