> One of the little pains of an upgrade is rebuilding /etc/rc.conf.
   > What if we moved the clean /etc/rc.conf to /etc/rc.defaults and
   > started with an empty /etc/rc.conf that users could override
   > /etc/rc.defaults settings?
   
   I make one change to rc.conf, that being to add ". /etc/rc.conf.local"
   to the end of it.  All my configuration then goes in rc.conf.local.
   
   I'm not especially attached to the names.  But something like this is a
   very good idea, it seems to me.


i worry about the idea like someone else posted about;  it could lead
to "undefined" behaviour if a value is changed... does this mean we are
locked in stone ?  i don't know ... however, i feel that we should
ship rc.conf as-is, and add this (with appropriate [ -f tests) to the
end of it, and have an empty default rc.conf.local (even have some
examples in it, or somewhere else, for "Server", "Workstation",
"Firewall", configurations, etc...)