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Date:      Wed, 15 Mar 2000 13:09:23 -0500 (EST)
From:      Thomas Stromberg <tstromberg@rtci.com>
To:        Yoshinobu Inoue <shin@nd.net.fujitsu.co.jp>
Cc:        freebsd-arch@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Time for an /etc/ipv6 directory? (restructure /etc?)
Message-ID:  <Pine.GSO.4.20.0003151241400.5932-100000@barracuda.aquarium.rtci.com>
In-Reply-To: <20000315130310N.shin@nd.net.fujitsu.co.jp>

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The "three files" theory makes things seem a little SYSVish to me (for me
this isn't bad, but some hardcore BSD folk will squirm). I personally like
/etc/mail since theres so much stuff in there. 

However, should we follow SYSV and litter /etc with directories and
compatibility symlinks? For example, in Solaris 7, there is 55 directories
(multilevel) underneath /etc, and 79 symlinks to fix compatibility with
apps that expect them (and other weird files) in old places. A lot of this
is old compatibility with SunOS 4 of course. Solaris 7 chooses to throw in
doors, fifos, libs, and other annoyances in there as well. 

However, in FreeBSD 3.4, we've got 20 subdirectories (32 or so with
XF86-4.0), and 6 symlinks. Much cleaner. We do however only ~170 files,
whereas Solaris 7 has ~370. 

Where I'm going with all of this is, should we create for instance, an
/etc/inet (or inet4?) and an /etc/inet6 directory? Or have 3 directories,
/etc/inet for general, /etc/inet4 for ipv4 specific stuff, /etc/inet6 for
ipv6 specific stuff? Or for simplicity, move everything to an /etc/inet
directory?

What other files are we going to gather in /etc from the BSD/OS codemerge?

Should we make an /etc/rc.d directory because we have >3 rc
scripts? (we've got 17 of them now). 

For instance, Solaris 7 stores the following in /etc/inet: 

[tstromberg@barracuda] inet> find /etc/inet
/etc/inet
/etc/inet/CVS
/etc/inet/CVS/Root
/etc/inet/CVS/Repository
/etc/inet/CVS/Entries
/etc/inet/hosts~
/etc/inet/hosts
/etc/inet/inetd.conf
/etc/inet/netmasks
/etc/inet/networks
/etc/inet/ntp.client
/etc/inet/ntp.server
/etc/inet/protocols
/etc/inet/services
/etc/inet/sock2path
/etc/inet/ntp.conf

(disregard the CVS directory, it's for our internal housekeeping)

Should we go the same route? Should we symlink our /etc directory to all
hell and back, or screw backwards compatibility? What is our
direction. I'm not advocating any of the ideas above, I just want to give
everyone a little food for thought. Many questions need to be answered. 

Directory organization is something which is always a topic for argument,
because everyone seems to have their own idea and be passionate about
it. As far as myself, I don't really care, as long as /etc is only for
config files :0  

=======================================================================
Thomas Stromberg,                     Assistant IS Manager/Systems Guru
smtp://tstromberg@rtci.com          Research Triangle Consultants, Inc.
http://afterthought.org                              919.380.9771 x3210
=======================================================================
       "if you do nothing enough, something's bound to happen.."  
=======================================================================

On Wed, 15 Mar 2000, Yoshinobu Inoue wrote:

> > Greetings,
> > 
> > 	We're starting to get a lot of new files in /etc related to the
> > IPV6 changes (which I think are a fabulous thing, don't get me
> > wrong). Would it be worthwhile to follow the precedent of /etc/ssh and
> > /etc/mail to lump these files together in their own directory? My personal
> > feeling is that anything which needs 3 files or more should get a
> > directory, and we just crossed that point with IPV6.
> 
> I agree it, and thanks for the suggestion. :-)
> I'll prepare for it.
> 
> Yoshinobu Inoue





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