In message <20030926172529.K4342@snowdrop.l8s.co.uk>, David Laight writes:

>Actually I think that only the editable files should be treated
>this way.  Large chunks of /etc are fixed are really belong in 'base'.
>Maybe I'll start moving them...
>

Yes!  (Btw, while you're at it it might be nice to teach etcupdate a 
bit more.  There are some explicitly local files, such as
/etc/daily.local, that it wants to touch.  And it should be smarter 
about asking about changes to /etc/passwd and /etc/group.)

		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb