On Thu, May 15, 2003 at 12:56:36AM -0400, Greg A. Woods wrote:
> [ On Thursday, May 15, 2003 at 10:59:03 (+0900), henry nelson wrote: ]
> > > I and at least several others believe this confusion would be totally
> > > and completely eliminated if instead the RCD scripts were installed (by
> > > default at least) into ${PREFIX}/share/examples/rc.d.
                                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > 
> > YES!  That's the first place I'd look.  If they aren't there, then the
> > whole install waits days, weeks or months until I have time to sit at
> > that machine again and waste precious time trying to find a template.
> > (Usually have to give up and go to google, then here or help@.)
> 
> Currently ${PREFIX}/etc/rc.d _is_ the examples directory for package RCD
                     ^^^^^
> scripts, but given its obviously confusing name people are lead to

I'm going to forge on for the reason I very much care about NetBSD.
What I had hoped to convey is that: 1) pkgsrc preferably would leave
the final installation of a configuration file, with a default location
of /etc/rc.d (see below), up to the installer, 2) pkgsrc must give
clear directions on how to configure the package (usually that's already
done by the author(s) of the software), 3) and preferably pkgsrc would
offer examples, or better yet, templates that the installer can move
after a quick edit to /etc/rc.d.  Those examples should NOT be stored
in some "${PREFIX}/etc/rc.d", but should be under "${PREFIX}/share/
examples/nameofpackage/".  If by the "_is_" you meant the final "rc.d",
then yes, I agree it is a poor choice.  I was mostly supporting the use
of "share/examples/".

Maybe there's some kind of miscommunication, or very different way of
viewing a system's configuration file structure, going on here.  It seems,
though, that we are all agreeing that ${PREFIX}/etc/rc.d is confusing.  To
me it's a total disaster.  If there's a near consensus, let's change it.

IMveryHO, there should be one, and only one, system configuration file
directory: "/etc/rc.d."  Right, I mean without even ${PREFIX}.  Anyone who
knows enough and is brave enough to use a ${PREFIX} hardly enters into the
discussion; they know what they're doing.  If something's wrong with ANY
program, the user knows to go to /etc/rc.d and /etc/rc.(conf|local).  No
hunting around or double guessing.

> Yes indeed the utility of the MESSAGE should be documented much better.
> 
> (FYI the MESSAGE file is what it's called in source form, but it ends up
> as the "+DISPLAY" file in /var/db/pkg, and is displayed with 'pkg_info -D')
                                                                ^^^^^^^^^^^
Okay, actually then I did at least know about it, just didn't realize that
it was part of "pkg_info."  While some packages like ssh are great, a majority
of what I tested just echo "pkg_info: can't find package `xxxx' installed or
in a file!" or only display the version information.  In general, though,
it's easy enough to go to the work/ subdirectory and read the breakout docs
if worse comes to worse.

-- 
henry nelson