Re: package/sharing improvement proposal

"Laurent G. Bercot" wrote:

| >>  1. on a working system, there is no reason for /etc/resolv.conf to change
| > This is nonsense.  Working systems often use DHCP and that will
| > dynamically update /etc/resolv.conf (on a regular basis).
| 
|  Right, I forgot about DHCP. and possibly other /etc/resolv.conf updating
| mechanisms. But you see my point.
|  On systems where /etc/resolv.conf needs to change regularly, it should
| be marked as such
| (i.e. for instance: /etc/resolv.conf -> /var/etc/resolv.conf)

I don't intend to keep coming up with single examples, but
here's one more reason why a read-only /etc won't work on many
systems:  the way various utilities handle locking and safe
copying of the password files means that, even if you start with
a symlink, you'll end up with a hard copy in /etc as soon as you
change a password.  And many systems don't allow symlinks for
kernels or kernel modules.  In general, systems that are more
than just black box appliances are not likely to work well with
a read-only /etc.  I personally think this is a pity, but it's a
fact and won't go away any time soon.

Greg