On May 31, 7:42 pm, Chris Angelico <ros...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sat, Jun 1, 2013 at 12:02 AM, Alister <alister.w...@ntlworld.com> wrote: > > /etc is used to store configuration files for the operating system & if > > you inadvertently corrupt the wrong one then you could kill the system. > > Expanding on this: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard > > The FHS applies to Linux, but you'll find it close to what other > Unix-like OSes use too.
Yes the FHS is a good center for such discussions. Let me expand on this a bit. I am going to use debian/ubuntu+apt because I know it a bit. You can substitute RH/Centos+yum or whatever... Modern linuxes are SOAs (service oriented architectures) or cloud architectures even if we dont like the buzzwords. This means that when I install debian/ubuntu on my personal computer there is some kind of contract-ing that goes on between me and debian. Some of it legal, some semi-legal some entirely informal/ conventional but still very important. Legal: For example it may be 'my very own computer' but if I take sources under a certain license and use them in violation of that license I could get into legal trouble. Semi-legal: Free and not-free software can coexist in ways that are at least legally nebulous Conventional: Debian must not use the machine (and file-system in particular) in ways that disrespect me. Note I am not talking of obvious legal gaffes like stealing my private data but of more 'conventional' problems like strewing my home directory with meaningless temporary files. Likewise: I MUST RESPECT Debian's AREA. For example I cant go messing about in /usr/bin [the name 'usr' is misleading and unfortunate] and expect support from debian. So $ sudo rm /usr/bin/foo is improper whereas $ sudo apt-get purge foo is proper. And its improper because you are not to mess around in debian's area -- except for officially approved channels like 'apt-get purge…' -- just as debian is not to mess around in yours. And writing into /etc constitutes messing with debian (or whatever is your distro). So yes, as Chris suggested read the FHS. And consider using a 'public-messable' area like /usr/local instead of /etc. Actually the situation is more complicated: the deal is not between just ordinary users like you/me and the distro. There's - ordinary users like you/me - packagers - the distro - upstream each with their own rights and responsibilities. What these are and how to navigate them is best discussed in your distro's fora eg http://forums.debian.net/ http://ubuntuforums.org/forum.php -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list