I just *had* to comment.

[Derek Atkins]

dsr at tao.merseine.nu writes:

>> However a
>> registry isn't sufficient, either.  Think distributed systems (i.e.,
>> I've got 1000 machines and the software is installed on a central file
>> server (not on each machine) and run out of the network file system).
>
> In which case you use rsync on /etc/dotfiles from the
> appropriate central repository branch (webservers get theirs
>>From repository/webservers/etc/dotfiles, login machines from
> repository/logins/etc/dotfiles, etc.).

This is a non-starter.  There is no "global registry" available.
Applications come and go, and each app potentially has its own set of
maintainers.  The global defaults need to live with the app, wherever
on the net the app happens to live, not in some central site or
filesystem location.

>> So, I guess ~/.* would work if you could set the application to read
>> its global configuration at install-time.
>
> That's a requirement, yes.

Ok, so your rsync comment was crack-ridden.  Got it.  :)

(What I meant was that when I install the application into a global
filesystem location, e.g. /afs/sipb/project/gnucash, I can tell the
app to look for its global state in /afs/sipb/project/gnucash/share).

> -dsr-

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available