Subject: bug#33787: Policy Change: Use of /etc/gnu.conf files to configure default system behavior

From: L A Walsh <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2018 14:40:48 -0800

But coreutils already does act differenty based on what
local libraries it pulls in at runtime.  If you want to
ensure they have the same behavior then they'd be statically
linked.

Second, coreutils behaves differently depending on the contents
of xattr.conf -- any util that deals with files will need to have
a look at that.

Third, coreutils behaves differently based on what is installed
with alternate versions of various programs, including coreutils
being configured for use on a system-by-system basis.

On more than one coreutils-including system, I see coreutil 
programs replaced with alternate versions like from BSD
because the bsd version was more user friendly.

Coreutils should service the owner of the system.
They should not be like a virus or malware that can change
behavior at the behest of the util-maintainer against what 
users want.  This has been what is happening.  

I'm suggesting a way for coreutils to better serve the users
of these programs.  Note -- there is facility for separating 
behaviors desired for scripts vs. those desired for interactive
use.  It has been my intent that behaviors for scripts could
advise users to accept defaults to provide for script 
portability between systems.

But for interactive use, I can make the statement that coreutils 
should not go against what users want and have 
non-optional/non-configurable changes made to defaults against
their will.  That's the behavior of malware.

Foremost, software should be user friendly -- something 
many if not most software developers have forgotten.  It's
there to service the users. Not to control them and force them
to do things in a way they are not comfortable with or that
causes them unnecessary grief.

Those things said, coreutils apparently is already using xattr.conf
and my proposal is to fold that into a gnu.conf where other
utils can store config ops, or go ahead and provide gnu.conf 
even if xattr.conf doesn't want to fold in to allow more 
flexibiltiy

At this point, all I'm trying to do is to gather xattr.conf into
one place, 'gnu.conf', so that users can know to pay attention to
it.  Notice I'm naming it 'gnu.conf' and not coreutils.conf -- I'm
not intending this to be limited to coreutils.

On 12/20/2018 1:59 PM, Paul Eggert wrote:
> On 12/17/18 11:12 PM, L A Walsh wrote:
>> I find that /etc/xattr.conf is being used to
>> regulate behavior in gnu tools.
> 
> Sure, just as lots of other system configuration files do, e.g., 
> /etc/passwd. But these files are intended to act globally throughout the 
> operating system; they're not an exception to the rule that coreutils 
> itself is supposed to portable.
> 
> Coreutils should not behave differently on different hosts merely 
> because the coreutils installer on one platform prefers behavior A 
> whereas the installer on another platform prefers behavior B.
>