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Re: how to make Debian less fragile (long and philosophical)



* Michael Stone said:
> On Tue, Aug 17, 1999 at 12:56:17AM -0400, Justin Wells wrote:
> >    #5 -- a hardware error occurs and it corrupts a few files. you
> >          don't know how extensive the problem is, but libC is 
> >          at least one of the file that's been hosed
> 
> So you copy libc from your backup disk. What's the big deal?
Presumably using cp or mv? They are dynamically linked with libc (assuming
you don't have sash). Ah, and mount/umount are dynamically linked as well -
and I assume you don't keep your backup media mounted all the time.

> > > much that can go wrong, and I can't boot over it.
> > > 3) A failover machine. Sometimes things really do break.
> > 
> > All three of your points assume that it is OK to reboot. 
> 
> Are you intentionally being obstinate? You mount your backup disk
> read-only, then you copy what you need off of it. You use your serial
HOW do you do that with dynamically linked utilities AND a broken (in ANY
way) libc6?

> line to do it. The serial line's getty is going to be there regardless
And what about the situation when your server is mere 120KM away?

[snip]
> You're putting too much emphasis on static bins, pure and simple. I've
> got machines that don't even have dynamic libs, and let me assure you
> that they're not failure-proof. 
Nobody says static bins make your machine failure-proof. It's just that they
make it LESS possible for the machine to fail in a way that requires
physical assitance and physical presence at the machine. And if you ever
administered a machine which is several hundred km away, then you'll know
what I'm talking about.

regards
  marek

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