On Mon, 2013-03-25 at 16:24 +0100, David Henningsson wrote: > On 03/25/2013 03:35 PM, Tanu Kaskinen wrote: > > On Mon, 2013-03-25 at 09:36 +0100, David Henningsson wrote: > >> On 03/22/2013 06:01 PM, Tanu Kaskinen wrote: > >>> === Improvements Related to Configuration === > >>> > >>> '''Problem statement:''' There are a couple of separate problems: > >>> * If setting some option in a configuration file doesn't seem to have > >>> any effect, chances are that it's being overridden in some other file, > >>> but which file? It's slightly tedious to manually look in several > >>> directories and check the file contents. It's even more cumbersome when > >>> debugging a problem remotely, when it's necessary to explain every step > >>> that needs to be performed. > >>> * Changing a configuration file requires restarting the server before > >>> the change takes effect. > >>> > >>> '''Suggested solution:''' > >>> * When reading configuration files, the daemon should store the origin > >>> file of each option separately. This information should then be made > >>> possible to query by clients. Then, pactl (a command-line utility for > >>> interacting with the server) should be extended to provide a command > >>> that prints the configuration of the running server, and also the origin > >>> file of each option. This functionality would probably apply only to the > >>> "ini-style" configuration files. Those cover most of the !PulseAudio > >>> configuration, with the notable exception of the startup script. It > >>> might be useful to also record the loaded startup script(s) so that the > >>> startup sequence can be queried for debug purposes. > >>> * Sending SIGHUP to the server process should cause it to reload its > >>> configuration. This too would probably apply only to the "ini-style" > >>> configuration files, not to the startup script. It's probably not > >>> possible to make all configuration options changeable at run-time, but > >>> that's OK. > >> > >> Hmm. This sounds like a lot of complexity for little gain. And potential > >> bugs only affecting those who are using this not-so-widely-used feature, > >> I assume. > > > > Are you referring to the second point only, or both points? > > Mostly the second, but if it only has support for the .ini-style conf > files, maybe the first as well. After all, it seems like we more often > want to change default.pa than daemon.conf. > > > I don't think the second point is for little gain. Sure, just reloading > > the configuration on SIGHUP (or whatever mechanism) isn't that > > interesting in itself, but runtime-changeable configuration is required > > anyway in order to support configuration GUIs. > > Well, the simpler solution of just restarting PA when you click "apply", > or possibly just give a warning message "Settings will not take affect > until PA is restarted" is not to be forgotten. That's better than nothing, but I don't think we should settle for a solution that interrupts ongoing audio. And I don't think "settings will not take effect until PulseAudio is restarted" is comprehensible by the main target demographic of Ubuntu. -- Tanu
