Localconfig Tool

[David Miller]

Kevin Benton wrote:
> Hi all.  I am considering writing a localconfig maintenance tool but
> wanted to get input from everyone before doing it.  Why a tool for the
> localconfig?  I don't want brand-spanking-new admins messing around with
> the code in a way that could take down BZ for the enterprise.  I also
> want to make sure there are backups and a history of changes.  We're
> tracking 34 different OS / version combinations before we start counting
> the many Linux variants, and updates are routinely made monthly. 
> Obviously, it makes a lot of sense to write this tool.  I also don't
> want to collide with what's happening with BZ.  My desire would be that
> BZ would move the configuration of the OS's to the DB rather than
> leaving it in localconfig.  It would also be my desire that OS and OS
> Version be separate items.

Here's the long-term plan.  How much this affects things short-term is 
unknown at the moment (i.e. small things that make things better until 
the long-term goal is completed won't necessarily be turned away).

Long term, we want to get all of the items that are currently stored as 
enumerators in the database out of localconfig, and out of the 
enumerator type in the database.  We'd like to move these to separate 
tables in the database with lookups and/or table joins as necessary. 
This would also allow them to be edited via a CGI script, which could 
enforce not removing ones that are still in use, and transparently 
handle renaming, and so forth.

> *** CAUTION: This may start a flame war which is clearly not my goal ***

Heh, that it might.  Tread lightly here :)

> I haven't made up my mind yet on whether or not I would write this tool
> in Perl or PHP if I write it, however, because of the ease of writing it
> in PHP, I'm leaning more that way though I am considering the challenge
> of a lone PHP program in the middle of a Perl package.  Knowing both PHP
> and Perl, I have wondered if this group has considered moving toward PHP
> instead of Perl.  I like Perl, but for web-based scripting, I personally
> prefer PHP hands down.

There are others among us that share that opinion (s/PHP/Python/ for 
some of them), however it's been generally accepted at this point that 
it's not a good idea to mix languages in the core code.  That said, 
there is already precident for using other languages for add-ons that 
aren't part of the core. (There is stuff both in Python and in Ruby in 
the contrib directory)

-- 
Dave Miller      Project Leader, Bugzilla Bug Tracking System
http://www.justdave.net/             http://www.bugzilla.org/