Bruce, > >> If /usr/local is really for local configuration then it >shouldn't be in > >> /usr. > > >Yes. It should probably be a symlink to somewhere else out >of the box > >on a freshly-installed Debian system. The installation >scripts can do > >that. Please submit a bug report on the "boot-floppies" >package about > >this so I won't forget it. The info on how to use the bug >system is > >on our web page www.debian.org .
If it is suppose to be empty...Then why should it be at all? > >> /local/etc would be configuration files typically found >/etc. > > >/etc is by definition local - however I have done it exactly >as you > describe on my system (before upgrading with dpkg >became so easy) in > order to tell what I had changed. I've >actually thought about using a > source control system > >(like RCS) on /etc . "dpkg" doesn't currently know how to >check > control files in and out of RCS - is this a good idea? >Currently, it > will leave a "filename.dpkg-new" file around >for you to hand-edit if > you decline to over-write a control >file. The difference between local configuration and global configuration is vague. A good way to determine this would be: If I NFS mount /etc read-only from a server on a client (of course you can't do this). What would I find necessary to change to make the client work besides account based stuff? Off the top of my head...here are some pretty big candidates: sendmail.cf yp.conf syslog.conf securetty printcap Questionable: hosts.* shells resolv.conf If one wanted to give the installer a choice (wonderful!) then shell script could be lifted out of the kernel configuration utility. The type of choice code that could be used has already been written. > There should also be a dpkg flag to ask it if you have altered a control > file from the version in the package. Since it keeps the md5 checksum > around, that is possible. > >> The wisdom of put the contents of /etc/X11/xdm and >/etc/X11/xinit > >> where they are needs to be re-evaluated. > >> Most of the files in these directories are shell scripts not > >> configuration files. > > >/etc/X11/xinit only has one script on my system, and that's >one I can > see reasons to edit. About 3 files in "xdm" could >be elsewhere, but > they are small. You might want do discuss >this with the "xdm" > maintainer. The fact you find need to edit this script suggest problems (to be distinuish from /etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config which is a genuine configuration file). One should be able to get away with only editing these scripts once or twice in a blue moon. The rests of this work should be done in ~/.Xsession as a regular user. It should be the perogative of any Unix system to keep users out of root as much as possible.