Ubuntu CD's for Free

[Net Llama!]

On Wed, 8 Dec 2004, A. Khattri wrote:
> On Wed, 8 Dec 2004, Net Llama! wrote:
>
> > How many servers are you maintaining.  I can't fathom maintaining alarge
> > number of server (where large is 100+) with the 'very easy to customize
> > and very easy to maintain' method that you've noted above.
>
> Why not? Its no different from setting up a local up-to-date repository
> for your servers to update against. Even, better, if all your machines are
> x86, you can pre-build binary packages at night automatically and
> distribute them as part of a later rsync process so the binaries are
> already there in the morning.

See my last email.  You've obviuosly never had to maintain servers in a
large enterprise if you think that 'at night' and 'in the morning' is a
reality.

> Another feature I didn't mention: since the Gentoo is based around a
> source package system, it is optmized for building stuff and so has tools
> for distributing compile jobs across a cluster of servers - I haven't
> tried this myself yet (my machines are fast enough but Im told it can
> really speed things up even more).

That's called distcc.  Sorry, Gentoo didn't come up with that, and
certainly hasn't cornered the market on it.

> > Generally
> > speaking customization and maintanence are mutually exclusive without alot
> > of resources.
>
> Normally I would agree however, since you can customize on a per-package
> basis by setting flags in Portage config files, you can build custom
> packages as part of the normal maintenance process - it doesn't require
> anything special apart from setting the flags for a package the first time
> you build it.

That's what spec files in SRPMs are for too.  Gentoo isn't special or
unique in that respect.


-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lonni J Friedman                                netllama at linux-sxs.org
Linux Step-by-step & TyGeMo                  http://netllama.ipfox.com