FreeTDS Development Group

[Andreas Tille <tillea AT rki.de>]

Sorry, due to problems in my mailing system this mail was delayed for
one week.

On Wed, 22 Dec 1999, Brian Bruns wrote:

> Well, the only question is how we will handle locale information in
the
> future. But for now interfaces is the sole configuration file.  Maybe
we
> should create a /etc/freetds/ directory though as I can imagine other
> packages having a file named "interfaces", so it makes it really clear
> what it is for and who it belongs to (not to be confused with network
> interface cards etc...)
Good point.  If you'd ask me I'd prefer
     /etc/freetds.conf
or 
     /etc/freetds.interfaces

The best way to solve that ist to handle to defines

#define INTERFACES_DIR
#define INTERFACES_NAME

which will be set to

#define DEFAULT_INTERFACES_DIR   "/etc"
#define DEFAULT_INTERFACES_NAME  "freetds.conf"  /* to stay with my
example */
                                                 /* set what you like
here  */

configure and make should handle these options for maximum flexibility.

> For now, change whatever you want as far as locations.  Our only
> dependency is that SYBASE is set...I'll throw some code it to have it
> check /etc/freetds/interfaces or /etc/interfaces (whichever you decide
is
> best, I'm leaning towards the former) so even this requirement will go
> away. 
The solution above would let me without any patches to compile the
package suitable for Debian.
 
> I'm planning a 0.51 release once we get some of the results stuff
> squared away and to include any progress I make with the ODBC driver,
> probably some time in January.  Nothing drastic will change but if you
> need any other code changes to make it more compatible with FHS
layout,
> let me know and I'll make sure they get done.
I could implement the stuff mentioned above but I'm really sure that
it wouldn't be ready before February (not much to do but I have to
solve other tasks ...).  If you think that my suggestion is OK, I
would be happy if it would go into 0.51.  I think this will be the
best candidate for a Debian-Package.

General remark to the config file:
It is general style of Debian to insert helpful comments into the
configuration files which support the user in deciding what to
type in.  It would be nice if you could ship an interfaces file
with some comments.  That would help me out of the situation to
think about stuff I don't know understand very deeply.  Configuration
issues are cruxial for a good distribution.  So I wonder how to
implement an interactive configuration with some test.  To do
this the right way some information inside the file would be
very helpful.

Kind regards 

             Andreas.