Re: config file handling
>>>>> On Fri, 3 Jul 1998 09:57:52 +0200 (CEST), Jens Ritter <jens@weh.rwth-aachen.de> said:
Jens> On Fri, 3 Jul 1998, Shaleh wrote:
>> Jens Ritter wrote:
>> > I have a gtk+ based application. You can tweak it´s looks by
>> > changing the xlogmaster.gtkrc file. The gimp puts its file in
>> > /usr/share/gimp/gtkrc. But I think /etc is the right place to
>> > put it in. Am I wrong?
>>
>> Personally I hate all these conf files flying around in /etc. And
>> the gtkrc is not a REAL conf file. The app will run w/o it. As
>> opposed to say inittab or something. So I say /usr/share is fine.
>> Or leave it off completely. Flames welcome (-:
Jens> I think I will leave it off, as the default gtkrc rather spoils
Jens> the good looks. But where should the application look for it?
I;d say /etc. The point of putting user changeable files in /etc/ or
/var is to reduce the number of places that files will get modified.
This means /usr (along with /usr/share) can be mounted read-only on
the machine. Also it means that /usr doesn't have to be backed up if
the user doesn't want to cause they will know nothing there has been
modified.
Jens> Another problem arises by the "extensive" use of
Jens> /usr/share. The fsstnd says in Section 6.4:
Jens> "One note: no program should ever reference anything in
Jens> /usr/share. For instance, a manual page program should never
Jens> directly look in /usr/share/man/man1/ls.1, but it should refer
Jens> to /usr/man/man1/ls.1 at all times. Anything in /usr/share
Jens> will be "pointed to" by the use of symlinks from other areas in
Jens> the filesystem, such as /usr/man, /usr/lib/<something>, etc."
Jens> I have >9000 files in /usr/share but only ~30 links to it on my
Jens> system... (numbers by: find /usr/share | wc -l and
Jens> find -type l -print0 |xargs -0 ls -l |grep /usr/share)
Jens> Has there been a policy decision to not comply to the note?
For slink (2.1) I believe we are still moving towards using the FHS
rather than FSSTND. The FHS says it's OK and sometimes important to
use /usr/share rather than some place in /usr/lib, etc. So I'd say
having files in /usr/share is OK because it will comply with the new
filesystem standard.
Jens> And still, where shall I put the gtkrc file of my application
Jens> (or the link to it)?
And you might want to leave the program looking for the gtkrc file in
/usr/share somewhere, but actually put the file in /etc, and provide a
symlink.
Dres
--
@James LewisMoss <dres@dimensional.com> | Blessed Be!
@ http://www.dimensional.com/~dres | Linux is kewl!
@"Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they're yours." Bach
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