Soft link based customized conf files management, how about this idea?

[Hongyi Zhao]

Hi all,

In order to have more control/maintenance/management on the customized
conf files for tools/utilities of the OSes, esp. Unix/Linux based OSes, I
think to use the following method to setup these customized conf files:

1. For a tool/utility, say, pptp-linux on Debian, which has conf files in
the /etc/ppp/, create a directory under $HOME as follows: ~/myconf/ect/
ppp/.

2. Then make the corresponding conf files used by pptp-linux and stored
them in the above directory, say, for my case, as follows:

werner@debian-01:~/myconf/etc/ppp$ find . -type f
./chap-secrets
./ip-down.d/nxuvpn-route-del
./peers/nxuvpn-lxl
./peers/nxuvpn-bhc
./ip-up.d/nxuvpn-route-add

3. Make soft link of the above files to the ect/ppp/ directory.

By this method, even if the the os is crashed and reinstalled by me, the
customized conf files will still be there for re-using.

How about this idea? Any hints or notes is highly appreciated. Thanks a
lot.

Regards
--
.: Hongyi Zhao [ hongyi.zhao AT gmail.com ] Free as in Freedom :.

[Barry Margolin]

In article <o4su2c$7s3$1...@aspen.stu.neva.ru>,

Linking system-wide configuration files to a specific user account seems
wrong.

--
Barry Margolin, bar...@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***

[Ian Zimmerman]

On 2017-01-08 08:42, Hongyi Zhao wrote:

> In order to have more control/maintenance/management on the customized
> conf files for tools/utilities of the OSes, esp. Unix/Linux based OSes, I
> think to use the following method to setup these customized conf files:
>
> 1. For a tool/utility, say, pptp-linux on Debian, which has conf files in
> the /etc/ppp/, create a directory under $HOME as follows: ~/myconf/ect/
> ppp/.
>
> 2. Then make the corresponding conf files used by pptp-linux and stored
> them in the above directory, say, for my case, as follows:
>

> 3. Make soft link of the above files to the ect/ppp/ directory.

Yes, it's been done.

On Debian:

apt-cache show switchconf
apt-cache show netenv


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[alb]

Ian Zimmerman <i...@primate.net> wrote:
> On 2017-01-08 08:42, Hongyi Zhao wrote:
>
>> In order to have more control/maintenance/management on the customized
>> conf files for tools/utilities of the OSes, esp. Unix/Linux based OSes, I
>> think to use the following method to setup these customized conf files:

[]

> Yes, it's been done.
>
> On Debian:
>
> apt-cache show switchconf
> apt-cache show netenv

You may also have a look at stow. I use it for my dotfiles.

HTH,

Al

[Hongyi Zhao]

On Sun, 08 Jan 2017 11:40:31 -0500, Barry Margolin wrote:

> Linking system-wide configuration files to a specific user account seems
> wrong.

For my case, it's my own computer and used only by myself. So, it should
not affect other real users.

[Hongyi Zhao]

On Sun, 08 Jan 2017 08:56:35 -0800, Ian Zimmerman wrote:

> Yes, it's been done.
>
> On Debian:
>
> apt-cache show switchconf
> apt-cache show netenv

Thanks, the netenv is only for setting network relative packages.
It seems the switchconf is the correct selection for my case.

[Hongyi Zhao]

On Sun, 08 Jan 2017 21:18:20 +0000, alb wrote:

> You may also have a look at stow. I use it for my dotfiles.

I've taken a look at (x)stow, it seems these tools will install all of
the packages files into separate directory. This is not like the
behavior/method used by switchconf, which only management the conf files
and so I select switchconf instead of the (x)stow.

Regards

>
> HTH,
>
> Al