Removal of /etc/skel, your opinions please

[Robert Watson]

On Fri, 30 Nov 2007, Alexander Leidinger wrote:

> Quoting Remko Lodder <remko at FreeBSD.org> (from Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:25:30 
> +0100 (CET)):
>
>> On Thu, November 29, 2007 10:47 am, Alexander Leidinger wrote:
>>> Quoting Remko Lodder <remko at FreeBSD.org> (from Wed, 28 Nov 2007
>>> 22:21:06 +0100):
>>> 
>>>> Dear arch@ members,
>>>> 
>>>> I would like to remove /etc/skel from the BSD.root.dist mtree file since 
>>>> it is no longer being used and I would like to remove unused items.
>
>>> Not an objection, just something to think about: Do we want to deprecate 
>>> the use of "adduser -k /etc/skel"? I know you said you just want to remove 
>>> the directory, and every admin is allowed to create it again, but by 
>>> removing the directory from the mtree file, we give a signal into the 
>>> direction of deprecation.
>
>> You do have a point there actually :-), what we can do in the install phase 
>> (initially "make distribution", later on when the system is already 
>> installed, manage this through "mergemaster") is install all files from 
>> /usr/share/skel to /etc/skel and actually use it.
>> 
>> If we dont want to do that, why should we keep on carrying the directory 
>> then?
>
> I have a local patch to adduser which adds /usr/local/share/skel (so 2 
> directories are used by default). Now I think it may be better to change 
> this to use /etc/skel instead, and to do it in a way that /etc/skel 
> overrides /usr/share/skel. Looks more usable to me. What do you think?

Sounds like a quite reasonable argument could be made for having mergemaster 
install and manage /etc/skel so that when sites customize /etc/skel, 
mergemaster can be used to manage those customizations over time. 
Alternatively, mergemaster could manage /usr/share/skel.

Robert N M Watson
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge