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Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 10:06:24 +0100
To: Satoshi Asami <asami@FreeBSD.org>
Cc: dillon@backplane.com, jkoshy@FreeBSD.org, bde@zeta.org.au,
        committers@hub.freebsd.org
Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/etc make.conf
References: <19980827093257.A12452@iii.co.uk> <199808270851.BAA11702@silvia.hip.berkeley.edu>
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In-Reply-To: <199808270851.BAA11702@silvia.hip.berkeley.edu>; from Satoshi Asami on Thu, Aug 27, 1998 at 01:51:36AM -0700
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On Thu, Aug 27, 1998 at 01:51:36AM -0700, Satoshi Asami wrote:
>  * I'd prefer it look for /usr/local/etc/make.conf. I like /etc to be as
>  * close to the original installation as possible.
> 
> Um, we're talking about variables defined usually in /etc/make.conf
> here.  What does that have to do with ${PREFIX}?  (One of the several
> possible, even?)

I wasn't thinking of /usr/local/etc as the default for ${PREFIX}, more 
as somewhere useful to put changed configuration files.

I like /etc being as static as possible. It minimises the amount of 
work I have to do when I upgrade the system (since most of my changes
are in /usr/local/etc) and it's a step in the right direction to being 
able to mount /etc read-only.

In general, I just want somewhere to put configuration files that differ
from those shipped with the OS, and that will be used in preference to
those shipped with the OS. On Solaris at work that happens to be (because
of local policy) /opt/CONFIG (so, /opt/CONFIG/sendmail.cf, 
/opt/CONFIG/gnats/* and so on). On FreeBSD I prefer /usr/local/etc.

I quite like the idea of making ${PREFIX} a system wide variable (perhaps
a sysctl?) that can be queried. Perhaps

    [/etc/rc.conf]
    ...
    local_config="/usr/local/etc" # Where local config info. is kept
    ...

    [/etc/rc]
    ...
    sysctl -w kern.local_config=$local_config
    ...

    [/etc/daily]
    ...
    set daily_local=`sysctl -n kern.local_config`/daily

    if [ -f $daily_local ]; then
        echo Running $daily_local
        sh $daily_local
    fi
    ...

and so on. "kern.local_config" is probably a very bad name for it though.

N
-- 
--+==[ Nik Clayton becomes Just Another Perl Contractor in 16 days. ]==+--
                      She's still dead. Deal with it.