On Wednesday 04 January 2006 13:09, you wrote: > On Wed, 4 Jan 2006, cobaco (aka Bart Cornelis) wrote: > > Package: base-files > > Version: 3.1.9 > > Severity: wishlist > > Tags: patch > > > > Adding the snippet below to /etc/profile modularizes /etc/profile so > > packages can drop snippets they want to add into an /etc/profile.d dir > > and have them picket up. > > No, not again. please use the wontfix tag instead of closing, this seems to be a textbook case of what the tag is for (and would avoid the whole 'again' frustration').
> Please read /usr/share/doc/base-files/FAQ.
had missed this, reading now ...
as I'll explain below I don't feel it addresses the reason I want this:
> Q. Why does Debian not have a "profile.d" directory, like other
> distributions?
>
> A. Because no Debian package needs it. Debian policy says: "A program
> must not depend on environment variables to get reasonable defaults".
> This policy has been very successful so far. If the default install
> had a profile.d, people might think it's ok to use it for a Debian
> package, when in fact policy does not support such thing.
There's other reason's then setting environment variables _needed_ by a
program to run to want a profile.d directory.
For example adding some piece of management infrastructure for the admin,
which is wat desktop-profiles does: essentially I need to run the profile
activation script when logging in with 'ssh -X' (as the Xsession.d scripts
then don't get run that way).
That script parses configuration files, and based on the settings in them
sets up the admin-controlled configuration sets to be used (which might
differ according to usergroup, or any other testable condition) by the
graphical apps of the various desktops.
Programs will work just fine when those sets aren't loaded, they just won't
be using the settings the administrator wants them to use (which might
necessitate the user duplicating eacht setting the admin made, or might
allow the user to avoid a mandatory setting).
More generally there's the point of CDD's (desktop-profiles came out of that
corner), the whole idea of which is to have a standard Debian, but
configured to suit a specific target group/goal/situation.
The only way to do this _inside_ of Debian is for packages to allow other
packages to add bits of configuration (essentially the configuration
package becomes the admin doing the initial setup).
The other option is to fork each package needing configuration with all the
extra work and effort that ncessitates.
As the above (hopefully) makes clear there's currently at least 1 Debian
package which _does_ need it, and with the growing number of CDD's there's
bound to be more sooner or later.
--
Cheers, cobaco (aka Bart Cornelis)
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