[wpkg-users] Setting a variable in a profile doesnt over-rides that set in a package

[Rainer Meier]

Hi Ronny,

> I took a look at the named topic. So the current order for variables in 1.3.0
> is: Host, Profile, Package

Host variables overriding profile variables overriding package variables.


> I guess every package and host has to be assigned to a profile. Variables are
> mostly *used* in packages, but if the package itself define a "general"
> variable, it doesnt matter if i want to exclude some hosts by using a different
> variable there. So for 1.3.0 the solution would be to only define the variable
> in profiles.

Of course a variable which is named differently is not overridden, nowhere.


> So i need to have a general profile which defines a standard value and for the
> "special" hosts, i need to define a second profile *after* the general profile,
> which depends on the general profile, but defines another value for this
> variable. But whenever i assign a value in a package, there is no way to
> override it? In my mind this is not the way it should work. If it works like
> that, i would never be able to define a variable variable inside a package,
> strange thing...

Either I do not understand it the way you write it or you got the latest change 
(fix in 1.3.1-RC2) wrong. Now any variable in profile or host named the same as 
in a package will override the one defined in the package.
If you define the same variable twice on the same level (e.g. multiple times 
"VAR" in different profiles all assigned to the same host), then they are 
applied in order of profile inclusion. I strongly recommend not to do such setups.

As you can read in the last entry of bug 262 the current implementation also 
allows conditional variables in order to define variables ONLY in case it has 
not been defined yet - effectively allowing you to prevent overriding a variable.

The issue described in report 262 is exactly that it would be better if a 
variable on host level overrides one defined in the package. Effectively 
allowing to specify different values for individual hosts. With WPKG 1.3.0 
implementation this is not possible unless the package uses a conditional 
variable which prevents the package to re-define the variable if it is already set.


> So i will stay with 1.3.0 for the moment and will define the changing variable
> in the profiles only...

As written in report 262 this will not work. First of all the package variable 
in 1.3.0 has highest priority. So defining VAR=profile in the profile and 
VAR=package in the package will make WPKG use the value "package" in package 
commands.

For 1.3.1-RC2 the same example would use "profile" as the value in commands.

br,
Rainer