Re: (ITS#5134) dbconfig vs. DB_CONFIG

[hyc@symas.com]

Pierangelo Masarati wrote:
> Howard Chu wrote:
> 
>> The manpage also says "This allows one to set initial values without
>> overwriting/destroying a DB_CONFIG file that was already customized
>> through other means." If the dbconfig settings had any other effect they
>> would (a) no longer be *initial* values and (b) overwrite/destroy an
>> existing DB_CONFIG file. Clearly that's not the intended behavior.
> 
> Indeed, I found the man page clear about the fact that Debian's behavior
> was incorrect (actually, useless).  But a second point arose: what if
> dbconfig statements not present in the original DB_CONFIG were
> subsequently added as dbconfig?  This is what would need to disambiguate.

Once again - does the DB_CONFIG file exist already? That's the only condition 
that matters. If you edit the slapd.conf and then delete the existing DB_CONFIG 
file, then of course the change will take effect on the next restart. Otherwise 
not. Don't make this more complicated than it is.
> 
> Another point is that slapd-bdb(5) man page insists on the fact that the
> DB_CONFIG is not overwritten, but it seems to leave room to speculation
> that changes to the dbconfig could **temporarily** take effect, which is
> not true.

Look again. "Specify a configuration directive to be placed in the DB_CONFIG 
file of the database directory." It does not say that it specifies settings to 
be used by the database, through any temporary magical means. Nowhere does it 
imply that the settings will have any effect at all. It simply says that if no 
DB_CONFIG file was present, then one will be created. Whether the BDB library 
will ever see these settings is completely unstated.

> I believe it should clearly state that if DB_CONFIG is present, any
> dbconfig directives are simply ignored.

I think such a statement is redundant, but I've added it.
-- 
   -- Howard Chu
   Chief Architect, Symas Corp.  http://www.symas.com
   Director, Highland Sun        http://highlandsun.com/hyc/
   Chief Architect, OpenLDAP     http://www.openldap.org/project/