[distcc] On Style - the hosts file

Jean Delvare khali at linux-fr.org
Thu Apr 7 21:38:27 GMT 2005


[Victor Norman]
> I personally do not like the idea of putting the --randomize flag in
> the hosts file.  I say, "let the hosts file be the hosts file". 
> Instead, I much prefer that all behavior modifications go on the
> command-line, or in a "resource configuration" file -- i.e., a
> dot-rc file, like .distccrc.

[Daniel Kegel]
> The history there is that we wanted to satisfy people who
> wanted to have a couple preferred hosts (like localhost) before the
> randomized ones.
> 
> Only the hosts after --randomize are randomized, I think.

True, but I still second Victor's point of view. The host file contains
hosts, and adding options there doesn't sound good at all. Not that I
have an immediate idea to implement the "not all hosts are randomized"
concept, but at least I can say I don't much like this one.

I would also question the interest of such an option. Was there a
significant improvement when compared with a fully randomized
distribution? I would think that a more simple rule would be not to
randomize the first host of the list and start randomizing after that.
Wouldn't it be sufficient?

Or we could have ~/.distcc/hosts.random for randomized hosts.

Just my $0.02 anyway.
-- 
Jean Delvare


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