/etc and /usr/local/etc

[Christopher Dawkins]

> As a relative FreeBSD newbie, I get confused between these two directories.


Throughout the system there are large numbers of similarly named
directories in different paths, logical when you know why but confusing at
first. Indeed, I am still getting new insights to it after ten years.


/etc is system config. It might nearly fit on a single floppy (I see one
of mine is 1.6M at present).

/usr/local/etc contains the config for everything you have installed, and
that's 836K on one server I have.

A backup of those two etc areas largely defines your system. But it helps
immensely to keep them separate and their functions distinct.

/usr/local/etc/rc.d contains the startup scripts for all your
applications, and is basically what follows /etc/rc.conf in the boot
sequence.

Look at

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/dirstructure.html


-- 
Christopher Dawkins
  Garnetts Corner, Braintree Road, Felsted, Dunmow, Essex  CM6 3DS
  cchd at pjcd.org     07816 821659     01371 821076