Subject: Script MIB discussion items (Re: Tentative disman slot)

From: Eamonn McManus <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 02 Jun 1999 12:16:53 +0200

Juergen Schoenwaelder <[email-masked]> writes:
> >>>>> Eamonn McManus writes:
[...]
> Eamonn> - Dependencies between scripts.
> So far, this has not been a problem for us. I am not sure we need to
> handle script dependencies in the Script MIB. But I will add this to
> my list of open issues.
> 
> Eamonn> - Script versioning.
> I added this one to my list too.

I should make it clear that I don't see these items as being necessary for
the Script MIB.  We were planning to handle them by stashing information
in the smScriptDescr object following some particular convention.
It would be *marginally* more convenient to handle them if there were
dedicated objects in the smScriptTable for dependencies and versions,
but probably this convenience would not justify the work needed to decide
what format (beyond just a plain uninterpreted string) they should be in.
I really only mentioned them because I thought that other people might
have interesting thoughts about them.

> One problem with this might be to get
> access to a suitable version number. If you load the script from a
> URL, how do you get access to the version number? If such a version
> number is only written by the manager, how can you be sure that the
> version number matches the installed script?

To a certain extent these issues are already present with the smScriptName
and smScriptDescr objects.  Names, descriptions, dependencies, and
versions can all be handled in a script-format-dependent way by having
the manager or the Script MIB implementation extract the relevant
information from the script.  For instance, if the script is a Java JAR
the information can be in headers in the manifest.  The name and version
could also be handled by encoding them in the URL.

,
Eamonn
--
Silicomp Research Institute, 2 ave de Vignate, 38610 Gieres, France.
Phone +33 476.63.48.82.  Fax +33 476.51.05.32.  http://www.gr.osf.org/~emcmanus