klm@cme.nist.gov (Ken Manheimer) (01/26/91)
We've *just* instituted a mailing list for discussion about The Depot
(described below). There's been some substantial interest on this
list about issues the depot addresses, as well as some dialogue about
the depot itself. In case anyone's interested, below is essentially
the introductory message for members of the list, including
instructions for subscribing (and unsubscribing). Feel free to drop
us a note if you're interested...
Cheers,
Ken Manheimer Nat'l Inst of Standards and Technology
klm@cme.nist.gov (301)975-3539 (Formerly Nat'l Bureau of Standards)
Factory Automation Systems Division Unix Systems Support Manager
I like time. It's one of my favorites.
Welcome to the Depot mailing list. The aim of the list is to
provide a forum for system administrators who are managing or are
thinking about managing a depot framework (see below if you don't know
what i'm talking about.) For the sake of orientation, here's a brief
outline of the depot, followed by some preliminary guidelines for
participation on the depot mailing list.
"The Depot" is a coherent, file-system based framework for sharing
software package installations across diverse computer host platforms
and configurations. Some nuances include support for diverse
application packages, provision for normal application maintenance,
provision for gradual additions of hosts and applications, and
redundant fallbacks for and staged release of applications. The depot
strenuously avoids introducing unnecessary interdependencies between
depot-configured hosts and/or applications, and it employs
contemporary UNIX OS mechanisms in reliable ways.
Compressed copies of a paper and slides about the depot (presented at
the Usenix Large Installations System Administration (LISA) 1990
conference) are available by anonymous ftp and mail-server. Ftp
durer.cme.nist.gov for "pub/depot.lisa.ps.Z" and "pub/depot.slides.ps.Z"
(use binary mode) or send an email message to 'library@cme.nist.gov'
with no subject line and two body lines of the form:
send pub/depot.lisa.ps.Z
send pub/depot.slides.ps.Z
Administrative requests concerning the depot mailing list, things like
subscribing to or unsubscribing from the list, should be addressed to
'depot-request@cme.nist.gov'. This address reaches an individual who
will process your request ASAP.
Submissions intended to be distributed to the list audience should be
addressed to 'depot@cme.nist.gov'. The distribution mechanism is a
simple mail reflector, which means there's no moderation. We expect
that submitters will keep things relevant and beneficial - there's a
lot to be gained from this collaboration, and even in disagreement
we've found that we could almost always come out ahead so long as we
avoided getting into personal attacks (and conversely, personal
attacks never seem to improve matters).
(One last thing. I should make it clear that the depot development is
not part of nor does it particularly reflect any of the operating-
systems standards efforts going on here at the NIST, or any other
official standards efforts, for that matter. It is not in widespread
use here at NIST and is *not* an official standard we're proposing,
just an approach that's been adopted in a few operating environments
here to help make our jobs easier. Furthermore, the discussion on
this list does not necessarily reflect the policies or endorsement of
NIST in any way.)
The depot guys... 24-Jan-1991
I like time. It's one of my favorites.