Re: X11: app-defaults and XF86Config
Richard Kaszeta <kaszeta@me.umn.edu> writes:
> >No, the current way to do things is correct. Changes should not be
> >bade in the app-defaults files, because they will get overwritten when
> >the packages is upgraded. The app-defaults files can't become
> >conffiles, because applications can misbehave, become useless or crash
> >if it is using an old app-defaults file which doesn't contain the
> >resources it needs.
> >Any site X customizations should be put into /etc/X11/Xresources. This
> >has been discussed about every month or 2.
> Actually, every time this discussion comes up it goes around a few
> times, with about half the people falling into each camp.
> On one hand, the point that making app-defaults a conf-file may break
> future versions is a good reason why they shouldn't be conf-files. (As
> described above)
> On the other hand, the point that app-defaults files and
> /etc/Xresources represent completely different (one is server-side,
> one is client-side) mechanisms for setting resources, and hence
> changes that are meant to to effect all instances of the client should
> be make to the app-defaults files (thus changing the defaults) instead
> of /etc/Xresources, which only affects users on the local display
> (which for some of my machines is nobody since the thing doesn't even
> have a local display).
> Such is the stuff that holy wars are made of. :)
> Personally, I don't care much, since in case 1) I will have to take
> care that nothing breaks if I change app-defaults in case 1), and in
> case 2) I'll just have to rdist/scp out my local changes to the
> app-defaults on every upgrade (which considering the very few packages
> that need this tweaking is not too much a hassle)
> Could someone (Bruce?) come up with a fiat declaration on this so we
> can be done with it?
How about this:
1. app-defaults should not be made conf-files for upgradability
reasons.
2. app-defaults belong in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11 because they are so
tightly bound with the executable.
3. In rare cases, it is appropriate to change an app-defaults file, but: if
the administrator is sufficiently aware of the issues to make this
decision, he can easily take care of it himself.
Bearing these three things in mind, the status-quo seems appropriate.
Steve
dunham@cps.msu.edu
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