Large /etc (samba, X11, others)

[Itai Zukerman <zukerman@math-hat.com>]

Lately I noticed that /etc is getting pretty big:

# du /etc | sort -n | tail
244     /etc/texmf/dvips
286     /etc/X11/WindowMaker
325     /etc/X11/scwm
388     /etc/texmf
436     /etc/X11/xkb/symbols
940     /etc/X11/xkb
2015    /etc/X11
2476    /etc/samba/codepages
2486    /etc/samba
7618    /etc

I'm wondering if everything that is being put in there really neads to
go there, for example, the X keyboard files.  Why?

What really bothers me is that these files are generally conffiles, so
won't be removed unless I purge the packages.

A better way, I think, would be to put this stuff in
/usr/{lib,share}/... and provide overrides in /etc.  But, maybe that
isn't in the spirit of the FHS, or would be too much of a hack?

-itai