About configuration files for the user session

[Steve Langasek]

On Thu, Dec 06, 2012 at 04:39:00PM +0000, James Hunt wrote:
> I've attempted to distill what is becoming a rather difficult-to-follow
> discussion due to all the examples in the spec here:

> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/Specs/RaringUpstartUserSessions#Collision_Resolution

> Please update if you spot problems.

The table here is very confusing to me with its references to "system
files".  Is this /etc/init, or /etc/xdg/upstart?  Given the distinction
drawn between system and user files, I would have assumed it's /etc/init,
but your terminology table suggests it's /etc/xdg/upstart.

> Note that I've also updated the Terminology section and special-cased
> "System Directories and Files" such that they should be considered as
> "higher priority" than User Directories to allow sysadmins to control user
> jobs via overrides to some extent, as already discussed in this thread.

I think that's exactly the opposite of what is being proposed in this
thread.  It's the user's file that should take precedence over the system
copy, not vice-versa.

> I totally agree that we want to avoid user confusion. Therefore, I think
> that along with strong documentation, we should update init-checkconf(8)
> to run something like 'init --user --list-jobs' which will not run a
> Session Init, but which will print:

> - each directory it is searching.
> - each file it finds.
> - whether the file will be considered or not based on either implicit XDG
> paths, or --confdir ones.

> Thus allowing a user/admin to make sense of what is happening.

Sounds like a reasonable debugging aid.  I think it would be readable to
only report on the files that are actually used, though, and ignore those
that are being masked out.

> I agree that ~/.init should be considered last. _Please_ feel free to
> update the spec if you notice problems - it's a working document for all
> to contribute to :-).

I don't currently see the proposed search path specified anywhere in this
document.  Should this be under
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/Specs/RaringUpstartUserSessions#Configuration_Files_for_User_Jobs
?

> Steve - I'm not clear on whether you're suggesting we need to consider
> perhaps a "/usr/share/upstart/conf/" too (a la initramfs-tools in Ubuntu?)

Yes, I am proposing that.

> Regarding allowing multiple --confdir invocations on the command-line, I
> really would prefer we have this - it's just exposing the internal search
> path logic, shouldn't be difficult to implement and would be invaluable
> for (non-DEP-8) testing in my view.

That means there would be two *different* mechanisms for specifying a series
of config dirs, with different semantics: one by adjusting the contents of
$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS, the other by passing multiple --confdir options.  I think
this is more flexibility than we really want to have to manage.

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer                                    http://www.debian.org/
slangasek at ubuntu.com                                     vorlon at debian.org
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