Re: /usr/etc and /usr/local/etc?
On Wed, Oct 06, 1999 at 08:31:02PM +1000, Brian May wrote:
> In article <[🔎] 873dvpa3nq.fsf@mrvnbook.intern.lin4net.de> you write:
> >> Config files are, by their nature, host-specific, and should not be in
> >> /usr
> >
> >They are not. e.g. /etc/hosts should be the same across a pool. Nearly
> >all files in /etc can be shared and none should be rewritten on the
> >fly.
>
> Agreed. My diskless package needlessly has to copy the entire
> contents of /etc for every host, since it cannot be shared.
>
> However, how would you distinguish a shareable config file from a
> non-shareable config file? eg would {samba,squid,etc} be sharable???
> (not that you would normally run these on a diskless system).
>
> I think if you are going to use /usr/etc, programs should first check
> /etc, in case the system administrator wishes to override the sharable
> config file for the given host.
This is a good idea for programs that live in /usr/bin or /usr/sbin, but
would require program support to check for configs in multiple locations.
However, I suggest that programs living in /bin and /sbin MUST have
their configs in /etc in case /usr is not available.
>
> IMHO, only a few files in /etc are not sharable, eg /etc/hostname
> /etc/mailname, /etc/news/whoami (I may have these names wrong), possibly
> mail configuration, network configuration (actually, this is sharable if
> kernel level auto IP configuration is enabled). Please tell me if I missed
> anything.
See above.
>
> On the downside, it is possible that it might simplify my diskless
> package (need to think about this more). Yuck - can't have that ;-).
>
> >Apart from /etc/mtab (which can be linked to /proc/mounts) normaly
> >nothing gets written to /etc and / can be ro. For diskless systems
> >/usr/etc and /usr/share/etc could reduce the size of the ramdisk or
> >root fs needed to boot and more data could be shared across a pool.
> >
> >Alternatively /etc/share/, /etc/arch and /etc/local could be
> >used. Just as one likes.
>
> I prefer /usr/etc, as this means a seperate mount point is
> not required, as /usr is already shared.
> --
> Brian May <bam@snoopy.apana.org.au>
>
>
> --
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--
Steve Bowman <sbowman@goodnet.com><bowmanc@acm.org>
Buckeye, AZ
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