Re: RFC: OpenRC as Init System for Debian

[Gergely Nagy <algernon@balabit.hu>]

md@Linux.IT (Marco d'Itri) writes:

> On May 11, Gergely Nagy <algernon@balabit.hu> wrote:
>
>> And in etc-overrides-lib, config files still remain in /etc. Its just
>> the defaults that live elsewhere. That the defaults are files, and are
>> under /lib, is an implementation detail, similarly how gconf defaults
>> live under /usr/share/gconf/defaults.
> This is not similar to how gconf works, because gconf allows you to only 
> set the directives you need in the new file, while udev and systemd 
> require copying the whole file from /lib.

But by the wikipedia definition, the gconf defaults are config files
too. My point was to make it clear that blindly following that
definition might not lead to desirable results.

But, a few more examples of config files, or snippets from directories
different than /etc:

 * /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/: I would especially like to quote these
   lines from the 50-synaptics.conf file from there:

   ,----
   | # DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE, your distribution will likely overwrite
   | # it when updating. Copy (and rename) this file into
   | # /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d first.
   `----

   While said file also says it is an example, looking at
   xorg.conf.d(5), it suggests that X11 will behave somewhat similar to
   systemd, and search for override-able config snippets in directories
   outside of /etc. According to the manpage:

    "When the same information is supplied in more than one way, the
    highest precedence mechanism is used."

   In other words, it does *exactly* the same thing systemd is
   criticised for.

 * /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf.d/: Files herein will be processed by
   alsa-lib, according to the README. They are obviously config file
   snippets, and as such, if following the wikipedia definition, should
   be in /etc.

   I assume - though, haven't checked - that files in /etc can override
   these settings.

I could probably find more, but just two off the top of my /usr/share
seemed enough for now.

It seems to me that etc-overrides-non-etc is already existing practice,
if X11 and ALSA use it too, among others. In light of this, systemd is
no different. It just has more defaults in files under /lib.

Long story short, I still don't see what the fuss is about.

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