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

From: L A Walsh <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2018 23:12:51 -0800

Over the past few years I have has for the ability to set
defaults for my system regarding various behaviors in
coreutil programs.  Some of the these behaviors have been
regulated via ENV vars in the past, but I was told that this
was not desirable as gnu was trying to get away from using
ENV vars to regulate a person's util behavior in their
environment.  I suggested using a config file in /etc
as an alternative and was told "no way". 

However, now I find that /etc/xattr.conf is being used to
regulate behavior in gnu tools.

Given the acceptance of such config files I would like
see a single file /etc/gnu.conf hold configs for any gnu
tool.

In it should be options for configuration by function
and tool, with tool-specific options overriding
function-specific options.  An additional selector
should be if the behavior is configured for "interactive"
use vs. "script" use.

Now I suspect that people will want these options to be
configurable by user and not just at a system level -- so
ideally, there would be a '~/.gnurc' file for user overrides.

Examples of configurable items:

Default quoting and sorting
Default TAB expansion (both tab column and expansion to space)
Default aliases for existing long options.
Default algorithm usage (if using depth-first processing,
        no pre-processing of names in non-depth-first order).
Default addition of optional path elements ("find" processing)
Default per-unit prefixes and their values.

The above should not be taken as a comprehensive list, but
as possible examples of included items.

Maybe I can go back and resubmit several bugs that would benefit
from this new policy?

L Walsh