On Wed, Nov 14, 2007 at 08:51:08AM -0400, Alan Mizrahi wrote:
The first time I saw the existance of the /usr/etc directory on a Crux installation, I thought somebody forgot to use the --sysconfdir parameter in a port, but I was mistaken.
Oops, sorry about the orthographic error, I think aspell is looking in /usr/etc instead of /etc ;)
In the Crux handbook (section 4.5.2) it says: /etc/ Configuration files for system software (daemons, etc) /usr/etc/<prog>/ Configuration files
So it is intentional, yet it has always bothered me.
Placing configuration files under /usr, where installed program files go, is just not natural. What was the logic behind this?
The logic behind is rather simple and sensible: configuration files for system software (e.g. udev, cron, exim) into /etc whereas other (user) software like mutt, gimp or irssi into /usr/etc.
The later are normally never touched by the user, they contain the program defaults and are overwritten/extended by files in the user home dir.
Well, then in the handbook it should say: /usr/etc/ Configuration files for program defaults that can be overwritten/extended by files in the user home dir
Often configuration files in both /etc and /usr/etc can be extended by files in the ~.
Right now I can see some configuration files in /usr/etc that can't be overwritten by files in the user's home dir: dbus, esd.conf, minirc.dfl (minicom), sane.d
I can see a problem here when somebody configures this files by hand and they get overwritten by the next update (by default pkgadd -u overwrites everything outside /etc).
Anyway, I still don't see where we benefit by splitting the configuration files that can and that can't be extended by files in the user's home dir. It clearly confuses some maintainers.
It's same as /usr/bin. What is the benefit of splitting /bin /usr/bin /usr/local/bin? / /bin - minimum binary files needed for: boot, mounting /usr and trivial repair. Core of the system. /etc - minimum configuration files needed for the binaries in the /bin /usr /usr/bin - stuff that could be on another partition/harddrive/network filesystem (despite that / can be on the nfs either) /usr/etc - configuration files needed for the stuff in the /usr/bin That separation is great, and used not only in the CRUX distribution. Some BSD systems using it as well. -- Anton Vorontsov email: cbou@mail.ru backup email: ya-cbou@yandex.ru irc://irc.freenode.net/bd2