What we keep under /etc

[Maxim Sobolev]

Actually it is easy enough to extend mergemaster to handle this almost 
automagically. For example it can create some directory, say 
~/.mergemaster, and store pairs version:hash for all virgin files that 
it installs, so that on the next run it will be able to distinguish 
modified files from pristine ones.

-Maxim

Brian Somers wrote:
> On Thu, 7 Oct 2004 13:55:28 +0000 (UTC), Mike Makonnen <mtm at FreeBSD.org> wrote:
> 
>>mtm         2004-10-07 13:55:28 UTC
>>
>>  FreeBSD src repository
>>
>>  Modified files:
>>    etc                  rc rc.shutdown 
>>    etc/rc.d             DAEMON LOGIN NETWORKING SERVERS abi 
>>                         accounting addswap adjkerntz amd apm apmd 
>>                         archdep atm1 atm2 atm3 bgfsck bootparams 
>>                         ccd cleanvar cleartmp cron devd devfs 
>>                         dhclient dmesg dumpon early.sh fsck gbde 
>>                         gbde_swap hostname ike inetd initdiskless 
>>                         initrandom ip6addrctl ip6fw ipfilter ipfs 
>>                         ipfw ipmon ipnat ipsec ipxrouted isdnd 
>>                         jail kadmind kerberos keyserv kldxref 
>>                         kpasswdd ldconfig local localpkg lomac 
>>                         lpd mixer motd mountcritlocal 
>>                         mountcritremote mountd moused mroute6d 
>>                         mrouted msgs named natd netif netoptions 
>>                         network_ipv6 nfsclient nfsd nfslocking 
>>                         nfsserver nisdomain nsswitch ntpd ntpdate 
>>                         othermta pccard pcvt pf pflog 
>>                         power_profile ppp-user pppoed 
>>                         preseedrandom pwcheck quota ramdisk 
>>                         ramdisk-own random rarpd rcconf.sh resolv 
>>                         root route6d routed routing rpcbind 
>>                         rtadvd rwho savecore securelevel sendmail 
>>                         serial sppp sshd swap1 syscons sysctl 
>>                         syslogd timed tmp usbd var vinum 
>>                         virecover watchdogd ypbind yppasswdd 
>>                         ypserv ypset ypupdated ypxfrd 
>>  Log:
>>  Remove the requirement for the FreeBSD keyword as it no longer
>>  makes any sense.
>>  
>>  Discussed with: dougb, brooks
>>  MFC after: 3 days
> 
> 
> This makes life painful enough to ask....
> 
> Is there any good reason that mergemaster deals with this stuff rather than
> make installworld?  Or maybe I should ask, why doesn't make installworld
> handle *some* stuff in /etc, such as /etc/rc.d/ and /etc/defaults/?
> 
> <IMHO>
> I guess the good reason is that POLA says that stuff under /etc/ doesn't
> change with an installworld.  But does this mean that we should keep this
> stuff (along with /etc/defaults/) somewhere else (/system/rc.d/,
> /system/defaults/)?  After all, the BSD world has always been against the
> sysV idea of storing binaries under /etc/, and /etc/rc.d/ is now full
> of binaries.... well, programs then.
> </IMHO>
> 
> Or maybe I'm just completely off track and the real world (!) adds its
> own /etc/rc.d/ stuff and modifies /etc/defaults/?
>