Question for virtual web hosting companies (ie not dedicated hosts, and not resellers): How much customization do you perform on the programs running basic services (HTTP,SSH,FTP,SMTP,POP3,IMAP,etc.)?

I don't modify all my software before compiling, but I do sometimes when there is something I want to tweak specific to my servers. I hardly ever install a precompiled binary, never did like to....

Originally posted by cperciva
Question for virtual web hosting companies (ie not dedicated hosts, and not resellers): How much customization do you perform on the programs running basic services (HTTP,SSH,FTP,SMTP,POP3,IMAP,etc.)?

I usually avoid patching services whenever possible. It will cause support problems in the future, like when there is new version of the software being used, you need to adapt your patches to the new software, sometimes this is easy, sometimes almost impossible and it always takes resources from you. And also it will take longer to prepare a server if you have a lot of patches, in my case it is more than one work day without any package management tool.

Whenever there are other workarounds without patching, I'll use them. But, having said that, I still have a LOT of patched software to maintain, both 3rd party or my own patches.

Originally posted by priyadi
And also it will take longer to prepare a server if you have a lot of patches, in my case it is more than one work day without any package management tool.

I think you need to start writing makefiles ;)

Originally posted by cperciva


I think you need to start writing makefiles ;)

My approach to shoot the problem is by using RPM package management. It is self contained and self documenting, patches are separated from the pristine sources, no files are scattered everywhere. It reduces server installation time from more than one day to just about one hour.

Of course, sometimes Makefiles are sufficient and no need to use package management.

Apply lots of patches to qmail.

Would you consider mod_ssl and mod_frontpage as patches to apache?

The only custom made patches are to suexec (apache) and squirrelmail (not a core service that you mentioned), unless you count the two patches for qmail that I wrote. One of the patches stemming from our debate about qmail. :)

Everything else is compiled from source on a development server and installed by rpm or tarballs.

FreeBSD Ports Collection mostly

I wasn't very successful in installing the thirparty add-on to tinydns for listening to multiple IP's but Alex Llera did it for me [with out a charge]


But there are quite a few things I would like to do and I am slowly getting around to it

Cheers
Balaji

Originally posted by MotleyFool
FreeBSD Ports Collection mostly

As a side note, the FreeBSD ports collection makes it very easy to add your own patches to the mix; all you have to do is copy them into the /files/ subdirectory before you `make all install`.