On 04/06/2007, at 14:36, Matthias Scheler wrote:

> On Sun, Jun 03, 2007 at 05:20:28PM +0200, Julio M. Merino Vidal wrote:
>> So I propose we change the default PKG_SYSCONFBASE from PREFIX/etc to
>> point to /etc/pkg.  What would you think of such change?
>
> I wouldn't object because I use that configuration myself.
>
> But I'm not convinced that it works very well for binary packages.
> Things in "${PREFIX}/etc" can be part of the binary packages, things
> in "/etc/pkg" can't. So it properly requires a lot of cleanup.

We currently have the "CONF_FILES functionality" to handle this.   
Packages are supposed to install their configuration files into  
PREFIX/share/<package> and later use CONF_FILES to put them into  
PKG_SYSCONFDIR.  If they don't do this, they are broken and must be  
fixed (I did a lot of cleanup in this area years ago, and I think  
most developers do the right thing nowadays when adding new packages).

As you probably know already, this has several advantages such as  
being able to detect local modifications to those files and respect  
them during updates.

This is another reason for making the change: packages that do not  
behave correctly would quickly show up as they would place their  
files in PREFIX/etc instead of in the new default place.

-- 
Julio M. Merino Vidal <jmmv84@gmail.com>