3) Personally this depends on the final rc.conf, is [1] or [2] going to be it? I don't enjoy visually collating options across rc.conf (terminal #1,vim) and rc.conf(5) (terminal #2,man). So if after actions (2), and (4), nothing remains but "esoteric" options, then sure, go ahead and do whatever you wish: remove them all or include everything. [1] http://projects.archlinux.org/initscripts.git/tree/rc.conf?id=ae28554e561517815c07330b2b7d5ee5de2f6dc7 [2] http://projects.archlinux.org/initscripts.git/tree/rc.conf?id=5b062674869c97018871b1f91c0b22d27ae900f7 4.1) Are we going to ship default (possibly empty) replacement configuration files, which currently may not exist on many systems, and add these to the backup array? This includes (/etc/vconsole.conf, /etc/locale.conf, /etc/hostname). 4.2) To be clear, is there going to be a separate configuration for the HARDWARECLOCK and TIMEZONE variables? >>>d) The new format does not require a bash interpreter to be read 4.d) I think this is a terrible justification. A programming language embedded in a configuration system grants a lot of possibilities. That in and of itself can generate much controversy. On one hand, it might be better to enforce a strict separation between configuration and code, thus requiring the removal of code into wrapper scripts. On the other hand, blurring such a line could while providing extensibility, in certain situations encourage faux-pas configurations better suited to wrapper scripts. Then is the faux-pas inherent to the programming language or the context of the configuration file? In my defense, I refer to [3] which lists many incorrect idioms. Also there is a sound way to read configuration files written in a programming language - simply evaluate the code. In any case, to preserve compatibility with systemd, the new files (/etc/vconsole.conf, /etc/locale.conf, /etc/hostname) should not contain bash. [3] mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/ 5) With the plethora of changes, each for different reasons, I think there is justifcation for a comprehensive news item summarizing changes to each variable: LOCALE -> /etc/locale.conf HARDWARECLOCK -> deprecated USE_BTRFS -> esoteric, removed for cosmetic reasons etc...
