Ubuntu – the purpose of /etc/default

etc

I've assumed /etc/default was a handy place to save the post-install/default state of configuration files so that when some poor sysadmin arrives at a new system she can quickly determine what has been customised on that instance.

But having just had a look around in there it seems I am mistaken? So apologies if this is a dumb question…

What's supposed to be in the /etc/default directory?
Where would it be appropriate, or is there a convention, for saving the default state of config files?

Best Answer

From a post on a Slackware forum:

Basically, /etc/default contains some parameters that the end user or administrator is likely to change, rather than embedding the values in the actual boot scripts. In this way, changes will persist even if you upgrade the package and the boot script is replaced.

In Debian, /etc/default/ is a directory of mostly empty files. The way it is meant to work is that each /etc/init.d/test script first sources /etc/default/test before starting/stopping the test service. The purpose of the file is to provide extra options for starting the service, or override certain aspects of the service's startup.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to reset default permissions for /etc?

What I would do :

$ sudo su
chown -R root:root /etc
find /etc -type f -exec chmod 644 {} +
find /etc -type d -exec chmod 755 {} +
chmod 755 /etc/init.d/* /etc/rc.local /etc/network/* /etc/cron.*/*
chmod 400 /etc/ssh/ssh*key

Maybe it's not sufficient, but without any backup, that's a good start.

Ubuntu – what is difference between /etc/shadow and /etc/passwd

Short answer:

passwd stores general user info and shadow stores user passwd info.

Somewhat longer answer:

passwd is the file where the user information (like username, user ID, group ID, location of home directory, login shell, ...) is stored when a new user is created.

shadow is the file where important information (like an encrypted form of the password of a user, the day the password expires, whether or not the passwd has to be changed, the minimum and maximum time between password changes, ...) is stored when a new user is created.

Some interesting extra info: passwd and shadow

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to reset default permissions for /etc?

Ubuntu – what is difference between /etc/shadow and /etc/passwd

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