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

From: Paul Eggert <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2018 13:59:06 -0800

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.