/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults/ --- Why /etc ?
I just got a new machine, and due to the fact its a different
architecture I couldn't just copy the old install over. So, instead, I
re-installed. After finishing installing, copying $HOME, etc. I did
decided to do a diff between the old /etc and the new /etc to see what I
might need to configure again.
/etc is, after all, supposed to contain configuration files maintained
by me, the sys admin. For the most part, this diff seems to be usable
(not perfect, but good enough. Not like I do this often.)
Well, at least until I got to this section:
> diff -rdBU3 FROM_BOHR/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults/apps/CDDB-Slave2/%gconf.xml /etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults/apps/CDDB-Slave2/%gconf.xml
> --- FROM_BOHR/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults/apps/CDDB-Slave2/%gconf.xml 2005-09-17 14:06:20.000000000 -0400
> +++ /etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults/apps/CDDB-Slave2/%gconf.xml 2005-09-21 16:50:27.000000000 -0400
> @@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
> <?xml version="1.0"?>
> <gconf>
> - <entry name="hostname" mtime="1126980380" schema="/schemas/apps/CDDB-Slave2/hostname"/>
> - <entry name="name" mtime="1126980380" schema="/schemas/apps/CDDB-Slave2/name"/>
> - <entry name="info" mtime="1126980380" schema="/schemas/apps/CDDB-Slave2/info"/>
> - <entry name="server-type" mtime="1126980380" schema="/schemas/apps/CDDB-Slave2/server-type"/>
> - <entry name="port" mtime="1126980380" schema="/schemas/apps/CDDB-Slave2/port"/>
> - <entry name="server" mtime="1126980379" schema="/schemas/apps/CDDB-Slave2/server"/>
> + <entry name="hostname" mtime="1127335827" schema="/schemas/apps/CDDB-Slave2/hostname"/>
> + <entry name="name" mtime="1127335827" schema="/schemas/apps/CDDB-Slave2/name"/>
> + <entry name="info" mtime="1127335827" schema="/schemas/apps/CDDB-Slave2/info"/>
> + <entry name="server-type" mtime="1127335827" schema="/schemas/apps/CDDB-Slave2/server-type"/>
> + <entry name="port" mtime="1127335827" schema="/schemas/apps/CDDB-Slave2/port"/>
> + <entry name="server" mtime="1127335827" schema="/schemas/apps/CDDB-Slave2/server"/>
> </gconf>
Now, after careful reading, the only changes appear to be the "mtime",
which I assume is a UNIX timestamp. Converting:
anthony@feynman:~$ date -d 'jan 1 1970 + 1126980380 sec'
Sat Sep 17 19:06:20 EDT 2005
anthony@feynman:~$ date -d 'jan 1 1970 + 1127335827 sec'
Wed Sep 21 21:50:27 EDT 2005
I have no clue what those dates mean. I suspect they are some
auto-generated timestime ("mtime" would seem to imply that). Maybe of
when the package was compiled. The "schema" field does not look like
configuration, either. In short, these files don't seem to be
configuration files at all. Some of these files apparently contain
localizations, too. Once again, not configuration.
It produced nearly 70,000 lines of diff. That is quite frankly
ridiculous. Maybe there is some configuration data in there *somewhere*,
but I sure am not going to spend the time to read 70,000 lines to find them.
Please, could someone tell me why these should not be in
/usr/share/gconf? Otherwise, I propose a mass bug filing.
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