Bug#40766: PROPOSED] Rewrite of "Configuration files" section

[Julian Gilbey <J.D.Gilbey@qmw.ac.uk>]

A few questions on the wording of this, but once those are clarified,
I will second the proposal.

> 4.7.1. Definitions
> ------------------
> 
>      configuration file
>           A file that affects the operation of program, or provides site-
>           or host-specific information, or otherwise customizes the
>           behavior of program. Typically, configuration files are intended
>           to be modified by the system administrator (if needed or desired)
>           to conform to local policy or provide more useful site-specific
>           behavior.
> 
>      conffile
>           A file listed in a package's `conffiles' file, and is treated
>           specially by dpkg (See the _Debian Packaging Manual_).
> 
>      The distinction between these two is important; they are not
>      interchangeable concepts. Almost all conffiles are configuration
>      files, but many configuration files are not conffiles.
> 
>      Note that a script that embeds configuration information (such as most
>      of the files in `/etc/init.d' and `/etc/cron.{hourly,weekly,monthly}')
>      is de-facto a configuration file and should be treated as such.

Do you know of any conffiles which are not configuration files?  The
concept of a conffile which is not a configuration file is bizarre.
I think that either the definition of configuration file should be
expanded to include conffiles or your 4.7.3 should be expanded to
include references to conffiles.  Maybe something like the following
wording could be better?

-     The distinction between these two is important; they are not
-     interchangeable concepts. Almost all conffiles are configuration
-     files, but many configuration files are not conffiles.
+     The distinction between these two is important; they are not
+     interchangeable concepts. Every conffile is considered to be a
+     configuration file, but many configuration files are not conffiles.

   Julian

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  Julian Gilbey, Dept of Maths, QMW, Univ. of London. J.D.Gilbey@qmw.ac.uk
        Debian GNU/Linux Developer,  see http://www.debian.org/~jdg