[ILUG] Application Locations

[Brian Foster]

  | Date: Thu, 13 May 2010 14:04:22 +0000
  | From: Daniel Shaw <dshaw78 at gmail.com>
  | 
  | On Wed, 12 May 2010 17:45:17 +0200 (CEST),
  | Ray Odonnell <ray.odonnell at ireland.com> wrote:
  | > Suppose I write a closed-source architecture-independent
  | > application named "killerapp" which has some binaries,
  | > some config files, and writes logs.
  | > 
  | > What do real people with real commercial apps do here?
  | >  What do Ilug'ers see as best practice?
  | 
  | The following is my experience and my opinion.
  | 
  | In my experience, most "real commercial apps" make
  | a mess of things by not being flexible which makes the
  | set up break when anything needs to change: new bigger
  | system, updates, different distro, whatever.

 Yes, albeit I wouldn't limit it to commerical/closed apps;
 I swear a lot at FLOSS apps which also do things weirdly
 for no apparent/documented reason.

  | In my opinion the best practice is to make it
  | as configurable as possible.  Things like: Have a
  | main/master configuration file that is editable and
  | contains options to configure your various paths. Have
  | all components refer to this. Have this main config file
  | be searched for in more than one default location before
  | the app gives up running. Have this master config file's
  | path configurable by a command-line switch.  [ ... ]

 Please allow me to add two points to Daniel's excellent
 suggestions regarding the main/master config file:

 The main/master config file should not be written-to by
 the application; but if you must, then it should make a
 backup of the old file and preserve all comments in-context.

 If some of the settings in the main/master config file
 have default values (i.e., a value used when not set)
 in the config file, those values should be clearly
 AND CORRECTLY listed (as comments?) in the config file.

cheers!
	-blf-

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