Re: Bug ?

[John D. Coleman]

"Alfred M. Szmidt" wrote:

> "John D. Coleman" <address@hidden> writes:
>
> > Problem: ftpd's man page states that the file 'ftpusers' is normally
> > stored in /etc.  It's aint there.
>
> We could change the info pages to say that it is stored in
> /usr/local/etc, but this isn't a good solution either.  What would
> happen if a user uses --prefix=/usr or some such?
>
> Or could generate the info pages, but this would require users to
> have texinfo installed.
>
> One possible solution is to make a small foot-note on commonly used
> places where this is stored, and that it is system dependent.  Anyone
> have any objections against this?
>
> The problem with saying "is stored in $(sysconfdir)" is that the user
> won't know what the prefix is for the installed program.

How about, "is stored in (prefix)/etc. Where '(prefix)' is the location
where ftpd was installed and is commonly / , /usr, or /usr/local/local/" ?

Else the footnote should work. The footnote hopefully being placed near
where the file 'ftpusers' is located. Or, maybe better, down at the bottom
where you have the list of files.

Thanks for having that file list BTW. Bash doesn't list e.v.e.r.y.
s.i.n.g.l.e. file used or usable. I find references to them while reading
about some other program. Some of those obscure files could be useful at
times.

>
> > Wouldn't this make ftpd Filesystem Hierarchy System 2.2 compliant ?
>
> It would make it FHS compliant if it looked in /etc by default, but
> this wouldn't follow the GNU Coding Standard where sysconfdir is set
> to @prefix@/etc.

Sounds like it's past time to alter that standard. Have exceptions for
configuration files. Isn't there one already for man pages ?

I have some programs, I forget which at the moment, that create their own
directory and place everything in subdirectories there. Man, doc,
executables, etc. In one way that is good, kind of like I'm used to with
Window programs. I wish Windows programs would quit sticking files in
/windows or windows/system directories!

But that thinking adds more complexity to a file structure that already
has a zillion directories.
If all configuration files were put in one place, that would make it easy
to find.