Re: Question on conf files

[Rob Browning <rlb@cs.utexas.edu>]

Shaleh <shaleh@livenet.net> writes:

> app should look for a app.gtkrc file in /etc or somewhere else.  But I
> would like a more broad discussion on what we feel a conffile is.  I
> feel that /etc is getting filled w/ many useless conf files that could
> prolly go elsewhere.  On many commercial UNIX systems, /etc is a place
> to find system level config like rc scripts and inittab.  I know a few
> people I have talked to were surprised at how crowded Debian's /etc was
> (I was after my first install also).

There have been big arguments about this in the past, but those were
mostly related to a slightly different question about what the
difference between a conffile in the dpkg sense, and a "configuration
file".

To answer most of *your* question, Debian takes a strong position on
/etc, and this should be considered a strength rather than a weakness.
Basically *any* file that records local configuration information goes
in /etc., no exceptions.

This restriction does conflict with the way many other "traditional"
unices have handled some files, but on a Debian system, there should
be no system-wide "configuration" files anywhere else.

(Did I get that right, everyone?)

-- 
Rob Browning <rlb@cs.utexas.edu> PGP=E80E0D04F521A094 532B97F5D64E3930


--  
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-policy-request@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org