Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:50:38 -0600
From:      Brooks Davis <brooks@freebsd.org>
To:        Robert Watson <rwatson@freebsd.org>
Cc:        Alexander Leidinger <Alexander@Leidinger.net>, Remko Lodder <remko@freebsd.org>, freebsd-arch@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Removal of /etc/skel, your opinions please
Message-ID:  <20071130145038.GB87073@lor.one-eyed-alien.net>
In-Reply-To: <20071130124258.P56931@fledge.watson.org>
References:  <17978.194.74.82.3.1196407530.squirrel@galain.elvandar.org> <20071130101651.4h9nvpztkwcg8o84@webmail.leidinger.net> <20071130124258.P56931@fledge.watson.org>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help

--LpQ9ahxlCli8rRTG
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

On Fri, Nov 30, 2007 at 12:44:18PM +0000, Robert Watson wrote:
> On Fri, 30 Nov 2007, Alexander Leidinger wrote:
>=20
>> Quoting Remko Lodder <remko@FreeBSD.org> (from Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:25:30=
=20
>> +0100 (CET)):
>>=20
>>> On Thu, November 29, 2007 10:47 am, Alexander Leidinger wrote:
>>>> Quoting Remko Lodder <remko@FreeBSD.org> (from Wed, 28 Nov 2007
>>>> 22:21:06 +0100):
>>>>> Dear arch@ members,
>>>>> I would like to remove /etc/skel from the BSD.root.dist mtree file=20
>>>>> since it is no longer being used and I would like to remove unused=20
>>>>> items.
>>=20
>>>> Not an objection, just something to think about: Do we want to depreca=
te=20
>>>> the use of "adduser -k /etc/skel"? I know you said you just want to=20
>>>> remove the directory, and every admin is allowed to create it again, b=
ut=20
>>>> by removing the directory from the mtree file, we give a signal into t=
he=20
>>>> direction of deprecation.
>>=20
>>> You do have a point there actually :-), what we can do in the install=
=20
>>> phase (initially "make distribution", later on when the system is alrea=
dy=20
>>> installed, manage this through "mergemaster") is install all files from=
=20
>>> /usr/share/skel to /etc/skel and actually use it.
>>> If we dont want to do that, why should we keep on carrying the director=
y=20
>>> then?
>>=20
>> I have a local patch to adduser which adds /usr/local/share/skel (so 2=
=20
>> directories are used by default). Now I think it may be better to change=
=20
>> this to use /etc/skel instead, and to do it in a way that /etc/skel=20
>> overrides /usr/share/skel. Looks more usable to me. What do you think?
>=20
> Sounds like a quite reasonable argument could be made for having=20
> mergemaster install and manage /etc/skel so that when sites customize=20
> /etc/skel, mergemaster can be used to manage those customizations over=20
> time. Alternatively, mergemaster could manage /usr/share/skel.

I think that in addition to having "make distribution" populate /etc/skel
we should change useradd to take files from there instead of or
in addition to /usr/share/skel (I prefer "instead of" because at least two
of the files in /usr/share/skel are useless for the 99.999% of unix
users who don't read their mail with main(1)).

-- Brooks

[0] I've met one person who used main(1) with serious intent.

--LpQ9ahxlCli8rRTG
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature
Content-Disposition: inline

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (FreeBSD)

iD8DBQFHUCM+XY6L6fI4GtQRAuf3AJ4hgJ0RYbFHIELQwyqnJK7P183/+wCeIZWm
r+R7LK5ntAyQlFTN63XUVEg=
=2T3D
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--LpQ9ahxlCli8rRTG--



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20071130145038.GB87073>