Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 22:30:24 +0000 From: Scott Mitchell <scott+freebsd@fishballoon.org> To: August Simonelli <deviledog@swiftdsl.com.au> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: /etc/rc.conf vs /etc/defaults/rc.conf Message-ID: <20040112223024.GB444@tuatara.fishballoon.org> In-Reply-To: <8991.61.88.6.90.1073945893.squirrel@webmail.swiftdsl.com.au> References: <8991.61.88.6.90.1073945893.squirrel@webmail.swiftdsl.com.au>
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On Tue, Jan 13, 2004 at 09:18:13AM +1100, August Simonelli wrote: > Hi all, > > I've looked in the handbook (and probably missed the explanation) but am > still a little confused. What's the difference between these two rc.conf > files? Both affect things, but what is best practice for their use? > > Thank in advance, Hi, /etc/defaults/rc.conf sets the default values for all of the configuration options - the values that will be used if you don't change anything. You shouldn't ever need to modify this file, or anything else in /etc/defaults for that matter. /etc/rc.conf is where you put local changes to the defaults - things that are specific to your system or network. At the very least, you will probably want to set the name of your machine and configure whatever network interfaces you have in here. The installer may have already written some settings to /etc/rc.conf when you were first setting up FreeBSD on the machine. So my general rule is to only ever edit /etc/rc.conf, and to just put changes to the default settings in it. Some people will copy the whole /etc/defaults/rc.conf to /etc/rc.conf and then make whatever changes they require - you get to see everything together in one file this way, but the danger is that you drift further and further away from the default configuration as upgrades change things in /etc/defaults/rc.conf, without you noticing. Hope that helps, Scott -- =========================================================================== Scott Mitchell | PGP Key ID | "Eagles may soar, but weasels Cambridge, England | 0x54B171B9 | don't get sucked into jet engines" scott at fishballoon.org | 0xAA775B8B | -- Anon
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