Checking special files and directories.
  etc/namedb: 
          type (dir, link)
  etc/named.conf: 
          type (file, link)

  Is there an option to disable/ignore that check?  (Or even better, could it
  be disabled by default when named_chrootdir is set?)  

That looks like it's from mtree.  I also have mtree annoyances since I
keep many files in /etc under RCS and they're 444 instead of the
default 644.

<not-really-serious>
Perhaps the mtree files should be m4 sources, and processed according
to some config switches?
</>

The only other approach I can think of is to change mtree to allow
certain deviations, like mode 444 when it should be 644, and symlinks
to a file/dir of the right type and mode.

-- 
        Greg Troxel <gdt@ir.bbn.com>