Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2020 09:14:20 -0600 From: Will Andrews <will@freebsd.org> To: "freebsd-arch@freebsd.org" <freebsd-arch@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Return of config files to ^/etc Message-ID: <CADBaqmiNf%2BrSbkNE-nkZCPZ7cR9Y1Ja9BhuwshjRMWg80G73Og@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <CANCZdfopmua8LJJV-Z-%2Bb9Gq0z_DYxXJsarwhFFQOBdEiBhKZw@mail.gmail.com> References: <CACNAnaE5kUuJiDOHtJSE357iiFrA2JQbNuEyLh5yZgU98X_t2g@mail.gmail.com> <CADBaqmgT032s38VjZO%2B0dELSLwW16PY-NY2Ky%2Bn3T8Rbn6SHWQ@mail.gmail.com> <CANCZdfopmua8LJJV-Z-%2Bb9Gq0z_DYxXJsarwhFFQOBdEiBhKZw@mail.gmail.com>
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On Wed, Feb 19, 2020 at 8:02 AM Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com> wrote: > > Right. The files don't need to move from the original /etc to do this, and > never did need to move. so this is not an argument against moving them back. > This was just the background. Since neither of these features strictly depends on where these files live > in the tree, this advantage doesn't go away. > But not new people, who in most cases are used to the standard that is followed by everything else (including everything installed by ports): config files with the code that reads it. That's why ^/etc is idiosyncratic. And people are used to it. They don't know where everything has moved and > waste a lot of time finding stuff moved to a new, arbitrary location. > This seems to be the primary argument made for ^/etc: "that's the way it's always been done, so it must be right." I can think of a lot of things that are done a certain way primarily because of that argument. I'm sure I'm not alone. The new locations are actually less "arbitrary" (to use your word) than ^/etc, since the config files are co-located with the code that reads them. This is nice for source management: there's no need to look in or manage other directories for related files like the default configuration. It is a *source* tree, after all. Here's a question: why are config files special? Why don't we store all man pages in ^/share/man/manX, instead of colocating them with their source files? -- wca
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