Hi all, there are two kinds of config files shipped with Arch packages: 1) "example documentation config" - by this I mean sample config files, intended for documentation purposes 2) "default config" - by this I mean configs containing sensible default values uncommented to provide basic functionality ootb One of the recognition signs is that in Arch, 2) configs are usually very short. Some examples of proper "default configs": /etc/ntp.conf /etc/pacman.conf and of "example documentation configs": /etc/dnsmasq.conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf /etc/hostapd/* /usr/share/doc/lighttpd/config/* Now the problem is: should "example documentation configs" be installed in /etc/ or /usr/share/doc/<package>/ ? I'd vote for the latter, here is the reasoning: 1) Users will hardly overwrite files in /usr/share/doc/ so keeping "example documentation configs" there will ease maintenance of short and much clearer separate config files. 2) In the examples above, in all dnsmasq, wpa_supplicant and hostapd, the decision to keep the configs under /etc/ is made in PKGBUILD [1], [2], [3]. In case of wpa_supplicant, wpa_supplicant.conf(5) even indicates that the path to example config is "probably" /usr/share/doc/wpa_supplicant/. 3) Keeping "example documentation configs" with uncommented options under /etc/ might lead to unintended behaviour, meaning the default options might not be very sane. Specifically, /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf has multiple network blocks uncommented, which, in conjunction with the recently introduced dhcpcd hook [4], may lead to wpa_supplicant being started without user's intervention and not failing due to the network blocks uncommented in wpa_supplicant.conf. 4) Considering the user-centric clause in the Arch Way [5], I don't think any default config file for the three packages is necessary as anybody using it will have to modify it. Creating the file instead of modifying some bloated sample should be easier, see point 1). Before I submit bug reports for the three packages (dnsmasq, wpa_supplicant, hostapd), I'd like to hear some more opinions about this. Thanks, -- jlk [1]: https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/tree/trunk/PKGBUILD?h=p... [2]: https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/tree/trunk/PKGBUILD?h=p... [3]: https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/community.git/tree/trunk/PKGBUILD?h=... [4]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dhcpcd#10-wpa_supplicant [5]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/The_Arch_Way#User-centric