specification of wordlist directory

[Gyepi SAM]

On Tue, Dec 24, 2002 at 10:35:44AM -0500, David Relson wrote:
> At 10:24 AM 12/24/02, Gyepi SAM wrote:
> >This is all very complicated. How about a simpler idea:
> >bogofilter uses a single primary directory for its wordlists. This is what
> >happens now, except we don't call it that. Additional, secondary, 
> >directories
> >can be added, either in a config file or the commandline. The key is that
> >secondary directories are always considered readonly. All write operations
> >are performed to the primary databases. This makes sense in the context of
> >shared system-wide databases: in order to update the system databases, the 
> >sysadmin must specify their directory as the primary. For everyone else, 
> >the system directories are  secondary.
> 
> Good!  How does bogofilter know primary from secondary?

Primaries could still use the -d option. I'd guess we have to choose
another letter for secondaries. The config files would presumably need
different ways to specify the two types.

> Since bogofilter reads /etc/bogofilter.cf (system config file) before 
> reading ~/.bogofilter.cf (user config file), it seems that the directory to 
> update should be the last seen.

Reading /etc/bogofilter.cf first is good. That way ~/.bogofilter.cf can overridethe global config as necessary. (Note this would imply that there should be options to 'unset' previously set options. But that's a separate issue) But relying on the order to determine what directory to update is not a good idea.
Incidentally, if  /etc/bogofilter.cf is always read then the sysadmin cannot use it alone when updating the system-wide files: they'd need another config file also, or some command line options. Aieee, this *is* too complicated.

My philosophy about such things is: if it is hard to explain or takes too long
to explain no one will understand it. which means that the default behaviour should be intuitive and easy to understand. Since most users will not require multiple wordlists, I'd say that the default behaviour (whatever it is) should be simple and straightforward. Advanced users and sysadmins can turn on the complicated behaviours *after* they read the manual. Of course, given the number of 'sysadmins' who aren't I expect we'll still get a fair number of questions.
Which is all the more reason to nail down an intuitive or easily explainable
set of behaviours.

> Are you thinking that an environment variable _must_ be set?  I've been 
> thinking that the environment is optional as the command line or config 
> file can provide the directory.

Not at all. environment variables should be optional.

-Gyepi