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Date: Thu, 21 Sep 1995 20:25:10 -0500
From: peter@taronga.com (Peter da Silva)
Message-Id: <199509220125.UAA07979@bonkers.taronga.com>
To: hackers@freebsd.org, ports@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: ports startup scripts
Newsgroups: taronga.freebsd.hackers
In-Reply-To: <199509201159.EAA04965@silvia.hip.berkeley.edu>
Organization: Taronga Park BBS
Sender: owner-ports@freebsd.org
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In article <199509201159.EAA04965@silvia.hip.berkeley.edu>,
Satoshi Asami <asami@cs.berkeley.edu> wrote:
>(1) /etc/rc.d

> - Ports shouldn't touch anything in the root filesystem
> + Central location, easy to maintain
> + Per-machine configuration possible even if /usr/local is NFS shared
  + Complete system configuration backed up by tarring /etc.

Though for that last, /var/db/pkg, /var/at/jobs, and /var/cron/tabs should
also be in /etc.

  - Other ports configuration scripts are in /usr/local/{etc,lib}

[ aside: /var/db/pkg and so on are a problem. Just about everything else
  in /var can safely be considered "volatile", you don't lose system
  integrity by losing them... ]

I like /etc/rc.d for all sorts of reasons that you've all already seen.

>(2) /usr/local/etc/rc.d

> - Shouldn't fix certain location
> - If /usr/local is NFS shared, per-machine configuration is cumbersome

This is a problem anyway, since there are other per-machine config files
in /usr/local.

> - X ports (which have PREFIX=${X11BASE}) have no way to know where
>   this tree is

X ports are a general problem... I really want them to be in /usr/local
as well. I wish Imake didn't use BIN to look for things like install.

>May I have your comments, ladies and gentlemen?

I prefer option 2. It doesn't break anything that's not broken already.

Option 4 is OK, but only because X ports are already broken.