Re: ca-certificates symlinks out of /etc

[Alex Pennace <alex@pennace.org>]

On Tue, Oct 31, 2006 at 07:41:02PM +0100, martin f krafft wrote:
> I am fully aware of this. However, it's misleading, don't you think?

I cannot answer that from the average user perspective. However,
symlinks are quite handy and there is already an established base of
users who are familiar with symlinks-in-etc.

> It's just not very typical for symlinks in /etc to be considered
> configuration:
> 
> Symlinks "leaving" /etc, including ca-certificates:
> 
>   piper:/etc> sudo find /etc -path /etc/alternatives -prune -o -type l -exec readlink -f {} \; | egrep -v '^/etc' | wc -l 
>   210
> 
> Targets of symlinks "leaving" /etc, excluding ca-certificates:
> 
>   piper:/etc> sudo find /etc -path /etc/alternatives -prune -o -type l -exec readlink -f {} \; | egrep -v '(^/etc|ca-certificates)'                               /var/lib/defoma/pango.d/pangox.aliases
>   /lib/linux-sound-base/noOSS.modprobe.conf
>   /lib/linux-sound-base/noOSS.modutils.conf
>   /lib/linux-sound-base/noOSS.discover1.conf
>   /usr/share/dict/web2
>   /lib/linux-sound-base/noOSS.hotplug.blacklist
>   /var/lib/defoma/fontconfig.d/fonts.conf
>   /lib/linux-sound-base/ALSA.discover2.conf
>   /usr/bin/Xorg

I'm surprised your report missed one of the most established
configuration symlinks of them all: /etc/localtime. I'm pointing that
out in particular because it has been around for as long as I can
remember, and serves its configuration function by pointing somewhere
under /usr/share.

All these symlinks allow programs to easily grab data and
configuration in one step. A program can open /etc/localtime and know
it is getting an up-to-date timezone file for the local timezone.

> I'd go as far as claiming that all these are bugs or design
> misdecisions.

Weakly disagree. That isn't to say that there is no problem: How can
we clear up the potential for confusion?