Rename sys/*/conf/DEFAULT to _DEFAULT

[Jason Evans]

David O'Brien wrote:
> In the days of modern Unix, many (most?) of us have come to expect and
> depend on command-line completion that today's modern shells provide in
> order to reduce typing (and inaccurate typing).
> 
> Given that premise, the "DEFAULTS" file in sys/*/conf constantly trips me
> up as my kernel files are named "DEO".  I know others with kernel configs
> named with a 'D' that grumbled when command-line completion was now
> thwart due to "DEFAULTS".
> 
> A very simple solution to this is to rename "DEFAULTS" to "_DEFAULTS".
> 
> One of the purposes for DEFAULTS was to semi-hide devices and options
> that really aren't optional (unless you really know what you're doing) or
> have POLA concerns so they would not be causally removed.  So this name
> change also puts this file to a different "name space" - and in fact may
> better convey "there are no user serviceable parts in here".

I understand your motivation, since I also heavily use completion. 
However, I definitely object to renaming DEFAULTS based on its potential 
to share a prefix with a user-created directory entry.  The real 
solution to the completion problem is simply to become used to typing a 
sufficiently long prefix before prompting the shell for completion, or 
if this is *really* bugging you, renaming your kernel config(s).  I 
think it would be a mistake to start making naming decisions based on 
potential non-uniqueness of prefixes.

Now, if you were to argue that DEFAULTS steals from the set of possible 
kernel names, and is a land mine that users must somehow know to avoid, 
I'd be less inclined to protest. :-)

Jason