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> I think overall its a mistake to try to over automate this process. It's brittle and the requirements are simply not the same as a server environment that nee

> I think overall its a mistake to try to over automate this process. It's brittle and the requirements are simply not the same as a server environment that needs to be simple to replicate X versions quickly, repeatedly and frequently. > Do you reinstall your workstation once a week? Unlikely and probably would be an unproductive use of your time. It's not about how often I reinstall. It's about how many machines I work on. I have a personal laptop, a work laptop, a work build server, a personal cloud server, and accounts on various systems. I want all of those to have mostly the same packages, with some variations (such as no GUI on the servers, and SSH on the servers). (In my case, I ended up with a simple set of Debian metapackages that between them depend on 99% of what I need, in addition to the usual git homedir.)

lucb1e 7y ago
If you regularly pull up new systems (also VMs), it indeed becomes worth it to do some form of automation. For me, instead of having a whole orchestration setpu, I just have a simple .bashrc that I copy everywhere and it has a few package lists in the form of functions: - Running `defaultinstall` will install vim, git, iotop, progress, curl, and other essentials, and it runs apt-file update. - Running `defaultinstalloptional` will pull more packages like sipcalc, cloc, woof, and other packages that I like but are not something I use on every system or do not use regularly. - Running `defaultinstallwifi` pulls wavemon, iw, and wireless-tools; `defaultinstallprogramming` gets me interpreters and compilers that I regularly use; `defaultinstallgui` gets me GUIs that I use (audacity, gimp, wireshark, xdotool, xclip, etc.); etc. On a new system I run whichever ones are applicable (e.g. a desktop may be GUI but not WiFi). Together with copying .bashrc, .vim/, and .vimrc, that's 90% of the setup I need for a non-GUI system. On a GUI system, I will want to set some task bar preferences. Only replacing my main system is an exception: I'll simply copy my filesystem from the old system (or, more often, physically move over the SSD), since I'll want to have the files, firefox profile, thunderbird config, etc. anyway. Takes nearly zero time to maintain and is not dependent on anything that I don't already consider essential (Debian won't ship without bash-compatible shell or a package manager for a long time) so there is only one manual pre-setup step: copying a text file.
- JoshTriplett 7y ago
  I don't do any orchestration either; I just have metapackages that do roughly the same thing, as well as a few packages that install system-wide configuration.

lucb1e 7y ago

If you regularly pull up new systems (also VMs), it indeed becomes worth it to do some form of automation. For me, instead of having a whole orchestration setpu, I just have a simple .bashrc that I copy everywhere and it has a few package lists in the form of functions: - Running `defaultinstall` will install vim, git, iotop, progress, curl, and other essentials, and it runs apt-file update. - Running `defaultinstalloptional` will pull more packages like sipcalc, cloc, woof, and other packages that I like but are not something I use on every system or do not use regularly. - Running `defaultinstallwifi` pulls wavemon, iw, and wireless-tools; `defaultinstallprogramming` gets me interpreters and compilers that I regularly use; `defaultinstallgui` gets me GUIs that I use (audacity, gimp, wireshark, xdotool, xclip, etc.); etc. On a new system I run whichever ones are applicable (e.g. a desktop may be GUI but not WiFi). Together with copying .bashrc, .vim/, and .vimrc, that's 90% of the setup I need for a non-GUI system. On a GUI system, I will want to set some task bar preferences. Only replacing my main system is an exception: I'll simply copy my filesystem from the old system (or, more often, physically move over the SSD), since I'll want to have the files, firefox profile, thunderbird config, etc. anyway. Takes nearly zero time to maintain and is not dependent on anything that I don't already consider essential (Debian won't ship without bash-compatible shell or a package manager for a long time) so there is only one manual pre-setup step: copying a text file.

JoshTriplett 7y ago
I don't do any orchestration either; I just have metapackages that do roughly the same thing, as well as a few packages that install system-wide configuration.