Technological advantages over Linux

[Michael Watters]

On 2/15/2020 1:49 AM, Victor Sudakov wrote:
> Ralf Mardorf via freebsd-questions wrote:
>> Another PITA on Linux machines are drop directories, overriding sane
>> configs, providing everything in one place.
>>
>> IOW a user might rely on /etc/foo.conf , but an update despotic installs
>>
>> /etc/foo.d/10-bar.conf
>>
>> and
>>
>> /etc/foo.d/20-bra.conf
>>
>> overriding all the values chosen for bar and bra by the admin, stored
>> in /etc/foo.conf .
>>
>> An update never ever would replace /etc/foo.conf . On Arch Linux it
>> would be stored as /etc/foo.conf.pacnew , almost all Linux distros
>> provide such a solution, but the admin is screwed, if an update does
>> add a file to /etc/foo.d/ .
> FreeBSD has taken this path too (looking at /etc/rc.conf.d/, /etc/cron.d
> and numerous others).
>
> FreeBSD's config merging solutions (mergemaster for src updates and
> freebsd-update calling sdiff) are pretty good IMHO.

Drop directories are actually a good thing and make managing a system
using configuration tools like puppet and ansible much easier.  Want to
add a cron job?  Just drop a file in /usr/local/etc/cron.d.  To disable
the job just remove the file.  You don't have to worry about conflicting
with other job definitions or mess around with the user's crontab.