Re: [SOLVED] Re: old entries in sources.list?

[Jeffrey Walton <noloader@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Jun 20, 2025 at 6:29 PM Andy Smith <andy@strugglers.net> wrote:
>
>  [...]
>
> There have even been some arguments that the relatively recent trend of
> providing .d directories and support for config fragment inclusion has
> been added predominantly by software coming from distribution ecosystems
> that lack decent support for config file upgrades, as their means of
> handling that deficiency. I don't know how much I agree with that as,
> even in Debian, it is an issue that it is forbidden by policy for one
> package to meddle with the configuration files of another package, so
> config file fragments were a way to solve that one.

Also see <https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/04/msg00352.html>.
It is from debian-devel circa 2010.  The impression I got was,
configuration directories were driven by distro packaging and the need
to merge different config fragments.  To wit:

    | When distribution packaging became more and more common, it became
    | clear that we needed better ways of forming such configuration files
    | out of multiple fragments, often provided by multiple independent
    | packages.  Each package that needs to configure some shared service
    | should be able to manage only its configuration without having to edit
    | a shared configuration file used by other packages.

Jeff