On Jul 13, Theodore Ts'o wrote: > The second observation I would make is that given the merger of SuSE, > Turbo Linux, Caldera, etc. into the United Linux distribution, if > you're right that SuSE is already using the rc.config.d system here > are some things that could be done to popularize it. > > 1) Try to convince Red Hat to adopt this scheme. > > 2) Try to convince Debian to adopt this scheme. (Be prepared for > nasty politics.) > > 3) Suggest that this directory be documented in the Filesystem > Hierarchy Standard. Note that Debian packages seem to be moving toward an /etc/default/INIT_SCRIPT_NAME scheme (see Debian policy section 10.3.2), while I believe Red Hat uses /etc/sysconfig/INIT_SCRIPT_NAME fairly consistently. If a canonical location is desired, perhaps the FHS should mandate that and allow distributors time to migrate. However, mandating a format is probably more problematic, although most of these files seem to be simply setting shell variables. (Debian specifially mandates that "It must contain only variable settings and comments in POSIX sh format.") Matter of fact, *if you are going to do this* I strongly recommend modeling the language after Debian policy 10.3.2, or at least find out what Red Hat and United Linux are doing and figure out a least common denominator of these implementations, and then pick a directory name that NONE of the three use so people don't bitch that it's RH-centric or UL-centric or Debian-centric (avoiding politics above), and allow $CANONICAL_LOCATION to be a symlink so distributors don't have to hack up their packages and the link can hide in distributors' "we're only LSB-compliant if you install this package" packages. Aside: I don't think that the LSB's place is to mandate distribution behavior except in the area of LSB application support - or else you get into nasty situations like requiring the underlying OS to behave like a classic Unix system, which some LSB compliant platforms may not be - think of LSB applications on the Hurd or QNX, for example. Now, if you want to specify that LSB *applications* should have their tweakable parameters in a certain /etc directory, feel free. But I'd leave basic distributor behavior to other standards, like the FHS, POSIX.1, etc. But again, if you want the LSB to be something different, I strongly recommend the "if one distributor is going to have to be screwed, screw them all" approach. Chris -- Chris Lawrence <chris@lordsutch.com> - http://www.lordsutch.com/chris/
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