Re: What should go in dot files

[Alistair Crooks <agc%pkgsrc.org@localhost>]

On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 09:21:57PM +0900, Izumi Tsutsui wrote:
> > Now that the earth-shattering issue of aliases has been solved, I'd really
> > like to hear your arguments as to what and why should go in the dot files
> > under /etc/skel. Why are no aliases allowed but BLOCKSIZE is?
> 
> Again, no BLOCKSIZE in skel files. I have no idea about it.
> If you want to remove BLOCKSIZE from files in src/etc/root/,
> you should ask it to admin users in a separate thread.

I'm not sure I agree with this.  Having 512-byte "blocks" displayed
for (primarily) du(1) and df(1) has always struck me as
counter-intuitive, a unit of 1KiB is much, much easier for people to
parse, understand, and use - and the POLA applies here in a big way. 
This thread is talking about new users.  Please don't condemn them to
512-byte trash.
 
> Anyway environment variables often change misc command
> behaviors and they are documented in man pages, but
> sometimes it's hard to find necessary variable names.
> In that case commented out examples in skel files could
> be used as a search key for Google.
> 
> For example, some third party binaries requires
> XAPPLRESDIR=/usr/pkg/lib/x11/app-defaults
> (until PR xsrc/26357 is resolved)
> to pull the default settings, but it's hard to find it
> if users install apps by pkg_add(8) as INSTALL notes suggested.

Another touchy subject for me.  pkgsrc has no business landing files
or directories or other symbolic links in directory trees which can be
viewed as "system".  The same goes for /bin, /sbin, and /usr/{s,}bin
as goes for X11, and that way lies Linux.  That's why tv invented
xpkgwedge, and that's why we put all packages (by default) under
${PREFIX}.

If you know of a way of doing this in a neater, more encompassing,
or less error-prone way, I'd love to hear it (and I'm being serious
here, since this is one of the grungier ends of pkgsrc). However,
there is no way you're going to get me to apologise for it - it's
absolutely essential.
 
> On the other hand, aliases don't affect any setup procedures
> and we have already mentioned csh(1).
> 
> Putting misc descriptions into skel files might be a great idea,
> but I don't think we can maintain it properly, as afterboot(8)
> is being outdated (no dhcpcd(8) in it, for example).
> 
> > Would you share your thoughts on this matter?
> 
> If you are using skel files prepared by useradd(8) and really
> want to put certain changes, posting actual patches is a good start.
> Otherwise I have no further comment to bikeshed painting.

useradd(8) was written to be a clone of the Solaris utilities of the
same name.  That's why we got these /etc/skel files, and I suspect a
lot of the settings in there come from my own setup.  Whatever, there
is no way everyone is going to agree to all of them, and so trying to
modify individual aliases is an exercise which is not going to make
anyone happy, as you note.

What I would say, though, is that I use very happily myself for every
user I add to my systems (I have grown accustomed to "useradd -m
-g=uid USERNAME"), and pkgsrc uses it and individual platform-based
clones, so I don't agree with your original comment about no-one using
them.

Regards,
Alistair