Request for design critique - configuration directories

[Gary E. Miller]

Yo Eric!

On Thu, 23 Mar 2017 14:16:17 -0400 (EDT)
esr at thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond) wrote:

> We have an open issue #204 on the tracker: Support /etc/ntp.d

Good to fix pre 1.0

> 4. Here's the tricky part.  Not every file is interpreted by every
> program.  Initially, only files with the extensions ".ntpd" and
> ".refclockd" are interpreted by ntpd. Other files are skipped.

I was OK until you got here.  I'm not a fan of encoding much in 
filenames.  I would put things in sections, which could be in any order
in any of the parsed file.  Like this:

    [global]
    # options common to ntpd and refclockd could go here
    statsdir /var/log/ntpstats/

    [ntpd]
    # options unique to ntpd go here
    driftfile /etc/ntp.drift
    logfile /var/log/ntpd.log

    [refclock]
    # options unique to refclocks go here
    server 127.127.28.1 minpoll 4 maxpoll 4
    fudge 127.127.28.1 time1 0.001500 refid PPS

For compatibility maybe anything not in one of those three sections
is taken either as glocal, or legacy.

> 5. The "other files are skipped" is a convenience for configurators,
> which can use file renames to enable and disable configuration
> snippets while leaving the file conyent of snippets untouched.

Hmm, without the extentions this is harder.  Maybe the all end in 
.ntp, or must start with a number?  Then README gets skipped.

RGDS
GARY
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary E. Miller Rellim 109 NW Wilmington Ave., Suite E, Bend, OR 97703
	gem at rellim.com  Tel:+1 541 382 8588

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    "If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it." - Lord Kelvin
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