The directory /etc/default/

trainee · 05-05-2009, 02:18 PM

Hi guys, would you please tell me what kind of file would be stored in /etc/default/

Thank you,

MS3FGX · 05-05-2009, 02:25 PM

My understanding is that this is a Debian concept that has been adopted by a few packages.

Basically, /etc/default contains some parameters that the end user or administrator is likely to change, rather than embedding the values in the actual boot scripts. In this way, changes will persist even if you upgrade the package and the boot script is replaced.

The concept is essentially the same as the .conf files under rc.d (rc.inet1.conf, rc.bluetooth.conf, etc), but they are in one centralized location away from the scripts themselves.

Yalla-One · 05-05-2009, 02:27 PM

The /etc/default directory is used for configuration files by two packages in a vanilla Slackware configuration: cdrtools and getty-ps. To find out what these packages do, have a look at their description from /var/log/packages:

Code:

cdrtools: Tools for mastering and writing compact discs.
cdrtools:
cdrtools: cdda2wav -- CD audio sampling utility.
cdrtools: cdrecord -- burn discs in most ATAPI and SCSI CD-R drives.
cdrtools: mkisofs  -- create ISO9660/HFS/Joliet CD-ROM images.
cdrtools: mkzftree -- compress a file tree to make a compressed CD-ROM.

Code:

getty-ps: /sbin/getty and /sbin/uugetty.
getty-ps: These control the process of logging into your system, and may be used
getty-ps: instead of 'agetty', which is the default getty included with the
getty-ps: util-linux package. getty-ps supports a number of enhancements such as
getty-ps: ringback support.
getty-ps:
getty-ps: getty-ps was originally written by Paul Sutcliffe, Jr, and is
getty-ps: currently maintained by Christine Jamison.

If you wonder about which package/program a specific file comes with in the future, you can easily grep for it in /var/log/packages. To answer your question, I typed the following command:

Code:

[199] user@host:/var/log/packages>egrep "etc.default" *
cdrtools-2.01.01a57-i486-2:etc/default/
cdrtools-2.01.01a57-i486-2:etc/default/cdrecord.new
cdrtools-2.01.01a57-i486-2:etc/default/rscsi.new
getty-ps-2.1.0b-i486-1:etc/default/
getty-ps-2.1.0b-i486-1:etc/default/uugetty.sample
getty-ps-2.1.0b-i486-1:etc/default/getty
getty-ps-2.1.0b-i486-1:etc/default/uugetty.waitfor
getty-ps-2.1.0b-i486-1:etc/default/uugetty.modem
getty-ps-2.1.0b-i486-1:etc/default/uugetty.sched
getty-ps-2.1.0b-i486-1:etc/default/getty.modem

Hope this helps!

-y1

trainee · 05-05-2009, 02:35 PM

Thank you guys. That clear out a lot of things.

joutlancpa · 05-05-2009, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trainee

Thank you guys. That clear out a lot of things.

Thanks for posting the question...I was wondering this myself.

gnashley · 05-06-2009, 03:21 AM

Some rpm-based distros use a directory, /etc/sysconfig, in a similar way.

Woodsman · 05-16-2009, 01:17 PM

Another handy file is /etc/default/useradd. When adding user accounts this file is queried to establish defaults.

For example:

# Begin /etc/default/useradd

GROUP=100
HOME=/home/users
INACTIVE=-1
EXPIRE=
SHELL=/bin/bash
SKEL=/etc/skel

# End /etc/default/useradd