> What of those of us who have done away with /usr/pkg in favour of
> /usr/local (someone, please give me a sanity check and tell me that I'm
> not the only one who did this!)?

No offense, but I _hope_ you're the only who does this.

Providing a clean, consistent system is already hard enough. I think
it is a mistake to add additional overhead that supports customized
restructurings when it would not otherwise be required.

The primary flaw with most SysV-isms, and bogus config systems in general,
is that machines need very predictable data structures, but anything
built out of scripts or .INI files, or whatever, stops being predictable
the minute somebody goofs in the editor, or when application programs are
forced to invent their own (broken) algorithms to configure something that
isn't already provided for. A great example of this latter point is WinBlows
drivers that want to be the last line of AUTOEXEC, and keep appending lines
to it on every reboot.

The single great strength of the old-style monolithic rc system is that
virtually every change forces a person to approve it, and people generally
are going to get it right (or realize their mistake when they don't).

Machines have no such judgement built-in, and have to be taught it line by
line. Thus keeping the config system as brain-damagedly simple as possible
is the easiest way to keep the rest of the software from screwing it up.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ best.com