VaZub <vasyl.zu...@gmail.com> writes:
> Both the man page for rc.conf(8) as well as the official OpenBSD FAQ
> (10.3) suggest to avoid editing /etc/rc.conf directly and instead copy
> it to /etc/rc.conf.local and edit afterwards.
rc.conf(8) says
It is advisable to leave rc.conf untouched, and instead create and edit a
new rc.conf.local file. Variables set in this file will override
variables previously set in rc.conf.
I suppose it's possible to interpret that as an instruction to copy
/etc/rc.conf, but I think this is the first time I've heard anybody
admit to doing that.
Leaving rc.conf alone is good advice, it's a "treat as binary"
file. When its content changes some variable the startup scripts
depend on has been added or changed, it's for a good reason that you
will find documented in the man pages, release notes and the FAQ.
It never occured to me to create rc.conf.local by copying the entire
rc.conf, mainly because it makes perfect sense that a file with
override values only needs to contain your local customizations,
anything else is noise that is likely to be a source of trouble
later. This may or may not have been due to actually reading rc.conf
and finding the line sourcing rc.conf.local at some point, but anyway
it's been a while since my first contact with any of this. Once you
have actually read rc.conf (if not earlier) it should be fairly
obvious that rc.conf.local only needs to contain the variables you
actually need to change from the default values.
> Yet it seems both fail to mention, that in order to prevent your
> system from going ballistic after doing this, you should also
> comment out or delete a particular line of code in
> /etc/rc.conf.local, namely this one: "[ -f /etc/rc.conf.local ] &&
> . /etc/rc.conf.local". Not good, especially for those who do follow
> official instructions and still suddenly find themselves with a
> broken system on their hands for no apparent reason.
You did not in fact read the FAQ too carefully, did you?
http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq10.html says
"We strongly suggest you do not alter /etc/rc.conf itself. Instead,
create or edit the file /etc/rc.conf.local, copy just the lines you
need to change from /etc/rc.conf and adjust them as you like. This
makes future upgrades easier -- all the changes are in the one file
that isn't touched during upgrade."
"copy just the lines you need" -- how can this be made any clearer?
- Peter
--
Peter N. M. Hansteen, member of the first RFC 1149 implementation team
http://bsdly.blogspot.com/ http://www.bsdly.net/ http://www.nuug.no/
"Remember to set the evil bit on all malicious network traffic"
delilah spamd[29949]: 85.152.224.147: disconnected after 42673 seconds.
