System profile versioning: Introduction

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## 1. Introduction

System profile versioning may have different usages. This solves various problems related to the complexity of managing workstations and servers.

Do you have a notebook computer?

Have you ever wished to have one set of configuration files for the office, one for the home and yet another one for a customer's site? And be able to switch at will between these configurations, even at boot time?

Yet, you wish be able to share some aspects of the system configuration in all three locations.

Are you doing more and more complicated things with Linux these days?

Have you ever wished to be able to freeze a working setup and then experiment with new settings while all the users are away?

Have you ever been caught very late at night with a non-working setup? The user will be back in a few hours and you are not able to get back to the working state you had when you attempted to enhance the system.

Well, if you answer yes to any of those question, then System profile versioning is for you.

## 1.1 Archiving mode

A check box controls the way archiving is performed. By defaylt archiving of a profile is done either when you switch to another profile or you trigger and archive operation.

Archiving may be perform everytime you modify a configuration file. The archiving is done just before the file is updated. This way the archive always contains the original version before you updated it. Using RCS or the --diff command line option, one can track the evolution of tha configuration file. See the --diff option below.

## 1.2 Definition of a system profile

A system profile is defined by a set of configuration files. These configuration files belong to various sub-systems. Sometime a file even belongs to two or more sub-systems.

## 1.3 System profile version

A version is a collection of all configuration files which define a specific state of your computer. By switching profile versions, you are effectively saving the current configuration files into a special storage area (/etc/linuxconf/archive) and restoring files from the newly activated version.

## 1.4 Sharing files between two system profile versions

Swapping all configuration files from a working profile and replacing them by other configuration files is not always useful. For example you might define two system profile version: One for the office and one for the home. Some sub-systems are identical for both environment and you expect that when you maintain one aspect of you Linux notebook at home, those change will be available at the office the next morning.

Sometime you expect the two environments to evolve separately. In fact, you need control sub-system by sub-system over how things are saved/restored between various system profile versions.

## 1.5 Archiving technology

Linuxconf use the RCS system to save copies of the various files. RCS is used to keep a history of the state of the configuration files. This will be used one day in Linuxconf to create audit reports showing how various sub-systems were managed over time.

The archiving technology might evolve one day to use an archive server. This would allows one to track efficiently the configuration changes of many workstation and servers.

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