Popcorn trails in all appliance startup-controlled files

[tmart]

It would be really nice if, as a rule, you started inserting comments into files (eg. /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/etc.... ) that the AppLogic catalog objects manipulate. This would really help avoid issues due to administrators changing files that they shouldn't be changing.

You already do this for /etc/hosts; however, there are many other files that you manipulate. I would recommend putting some sort of fingerprint/popcorn trail in each such file.

For example, in many cases, your /appliance/appliance_netsetup.sh script overwrites /etc/resolv.conf . You could easily, when overwriting this file, inject the following lines into the beginning of the file:

; Warning - this file is manipulated and/or overwritten during application or appliance restarts.
; Any manual changes to this file might be destroyed upon application or appliance restart.
; Scripts manipulating this file:
; /appliance/appliance_netsetup.sh
;

Thanks.

[PeterNic]

Thanks, Tim, I have forwarded this to the engineering team. Also, check out the new appliance kit (APK) that came with the 2.3.x beta release -- it is a pre-packaged set of everything you need to "appliancize" an instance. It also now contains all the elements that modify the config files -- so those are now fully under appliance's own control.

Regards,
-- Peter