Re: query about /etc
Hamish Moffatt <hamish@debian.org> writes:
> However, the FHS only says that host-specific configuration files
> (like fstab, network configuration, etc) need to live in /etc. In that
> case, why do we mandate that all configuration files live in /etc?
> Some can certainly be shared between hosts and therefore should live
> in /usr/share.
Almost anything can be shared (here, "share" means: common to many
machines). In other words, it's difficult to predict what files any
particular site will want to share.
On the other hand, maybe some site won't want to share a particular file
that 90% of sites wouldn't mind sharing.
Therefore, it's better to just keep everything in a single place (like
/etc is set up today) and concentrate on making it easy for sysadmins to
share things if they want to. Symbolic links to a centralized directory
and rdist are two common methods for sharing configuration files. (I've
seen both methods used very successfully.)
Note: /usr/share means architecture-independent static data, so using
the name "share" for any other directory that wasn't at least
architecture-independent would be confusing.
- Dan
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