RE: [coldsync-hackers] Re: Redux: Netsync + [X]inetd

["Rob Bloodgood" <robb at empire2 dot com>]

> On Thu, 28 Feb 2002, Rob Bloodgood wrote:
> > Andrew: I really liked what Fransico did w/ the multi-user patch
> > creating a different user directory automatically based on the
> > Palm username.  While your rebuttal to the approach was valid, the
> > two different points of view represent two entirely different
> > solution sets, for different situations.  So, might I suggest a
> > cmdline switch or even an option in the 'listen net {}' block of
> > coldsync.conf, to reflect the differences?

> 	I haven't looked at his patch in detail, so I'll refrain from
> commenting on it.

His patch (the multi-user part, anyway) was running from the idea of having
one "coldsync" system user, with ~coldsync/Rob Bloodgood as the default dir
for _my_ Palm.  Your response says, "but you can do that easily in
coldsync.conf" and he says, "Yeah but then I only have to modify
/usr/local/etc/palms"

That file would be like:
|Palm OS Emulator||coldsync|
FMADAWE-G|Joe Shmoe|523|coldsync|
ALDJWIFJS-S|Jim Dandy|942|coldsync|

In this situation, there is really only one "palm user", that's the system
admin.  There's only one coldsync.conf block/section/config, because
ostensibly with that many users, you set them up as appropriate for your
enterprise and be done with it.  I'm thinking of, for example, a hospital.
The doctors don't know/care/need-to-know anything about computers.  They use
the palm app for diagnosing or whatever, then drop it off/sync it at end of
day.  Happy super-cool sync conduit tracks all of the patient activity, and
only the (single) local geek needs to mess with the back end.

Actually, now that I look at it again before sending, it seems to me that
any user specific configs (in this "enterprise" setup) can easily be handled
in .../palms as well:

NGEVLASI-A|Geeky Doctor|5823|coldsync|/home/coldsync/Geeky
Doctor/.coldsyncrc

... or something like that.

> 	But it seems to me that it might be possible to have your cake
> and eat it too, in this case, by using %-sequences. Thus, if you
> have
> 	pda {
> 		directory: %H/all-palms/%U/%N;
> 	}
> the %H would be replaced by the home directory, %U with the userid
> from the Palm, and %N with the full name of the user on the Palm,
> giving
>
> 	directory: /homes/palmuser/all-palms/31337/Gorko the Punisher;
>
> Obviously this needs to be thought through, but it's something to
> consider. It'd be cool to have tilde-expansion, and this would fit
> right in, IMHO.

Hey, if this works too, great.  If I *really* wanted to go there (and I
don't, believe me), I'd see about auto-adding users to .../etc/palms.  Until
that point, how much of the above suggestion is currently available, and how
much needs to be added in the meantime?

And while we're at it, how hard would tilde expansion be to add? :-)

L8r,
Rob


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