Greywolf writes:
>We find ourselves at something of an impasse:  We've already shot
>ourselves in the foot with /usr/local/etc/rc.d.  It should be in

Oh? I've only seen that on FreeBSD systems - and though "what a pitty
they botched a nice idea" - for the very reasons you cite.

Ah, is that because they use /usr/local instead of /usr/pkg ?
I use both btw, I consider /usr/pkg stuff part of NetBSD so best left as 
shipped, _really_ local stuff goes in /usr/local.

/etc/rc.local.d and /etc/rc.pkg.d make sense.  So does /etc/init.d (or call
it what you like) as a holding area for rc scripts - use name space rules 
to avoid conflicts foo, foo.local foo.pkg if you like or bsd.foo, pkg.foo
and anything else is local, and then links into /etc/rc*.d to do what you want.  
Then it is easy to have the start/stop script available without having it 
enabled. 
 
Oh and yes rc*.conf should die.
Having a file that needs to be edited tosses so much of the benefit of
individual rc scripts is not funny.

Did I ever mention that the _biggest_ advantage of individual rc scripts has
nothing to do with boot/shutdown managment?  Its being able to tell the 
night watchman at the end of the line to "type '/etc/init.d/ntpd restart'"
or whatever, rather than explain how to run ps, kill etc etc.
Once you have the scripts for that purpose, using them for boot just
"makes sense".  Your /etc/rc could be noting more than a manually edited
list like:

/etc/init.d/fu
/etc/init.d/bar
...

no lack of control there for those that don't trust anything but themselves.

Obviously not everyone likes everything Luke and Matt have done, but it
is a definite step in the right direction.

--sjg