Subject: Re: /etc/conf: Re: Rmail queues everything? <[email-masked]>

From: Ken Hornstein <[email-masked]>

>>/etc is already the config directory.  What else do you put in yours ?
>
>At the risk of being accused of comparing apples to oranges, I will offer
>this:  Silicon Graphics has a /etc/config directory, which contains the
>config files used during the startup process: flags which tell whether
>or not to run various subsystems (network, nfs, graphics, iconlogin, etc.)
>and the options those subsystems use, in contrast to the NetBSD way of
>putting the flags at the beginning of /etc/netstart.  The /etc directory
>proper contains the general purpose config files, the ones that get
>referenced during the normal operation of the machine.

Another data point: OSF/1 puts all those various shell variables into a
separate file called /etc/rc.config; all of the system startup scrips include
this one and use the settings in that file to decide what to do.  Unless
we want to go to the system V run-level scheme with /etc/rc* directories,
I don't see any advantage to this; if only /etc/netstart or /etc/rc.local
is going to use some variables, I think it makes sense to just put those
variables at the top of the appropriate script.

Actually, I can think of one benefit of moving those out to a different file:
during upgrades, you can upgrade your startup scripts but not have to
worry about editing your local changes in, since they will be reflected in
a separate file (this is sorta done already, with the /etc/myname and
/etc/mygate files).

--Ken