[ On Saturday, September 23, 2000 at 15:25:59 (+1100), Luke Mewburn wrote: ]
> Subject: Possible rc.conf / default/rc.conf enhancements...
>
> 1. Rename /etc/default -> /etc/defaults

Yes, good idea...


> 2. Put commented-out defaults in /etc/rc.conf

No, this is not a good idea.  The biggest benefit in having only
localisations in /etc/rc.conf is that it makes it far easier to see
exactly what's unique about the system.  Even with commented out entries
it's much harder to get the full picture.

Furthermore there's a very non-trivial amount of extra I/O necessary to
read a much bigger /etc/rc.conf file.  The new system is already too
slow on my 486 machines and I'm dreading finding out what it's like on
the sun-3....

> I feel that these changes would:
> 	- Keep the people happy who want the info in one file.

Such people should already be happy enough that the defaults are coded
as variable settings in a unified file and not spread about and
hard-coded in all the separate startup scripts themselves.

> 	- Still allows us to upgrade /etc/defaults/rc.conf to setup
> 	  sane defaults and make upgrades easier.

barely....

> 	- Doesn't require developers to modify the information in
> 	  two locations.

Ther really isn't really any advantage because you've just moved all the
extra effort onto *everyone* else who has to do an upgrade.  The effort
required by developers, while important to keep as low as it is
reasonable to do so, is far less important in this case.  Developers who
make their lives easier at the expense of *everyone* else's are not
going to be very popular!  ;-)

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

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