Bug#746442: Please make /etc/rc.local non-executable by default

[Josh Triplett]

On Thu, Nov 15, 2018 at 08:44:03PM +0100, Thorsten Glaser wrote:
> On Thu, 15 Nov 2018, Josh Triplett wrote:
> 
> > Are you saying that even *with* that comment you'd be surprised?
> 
> Yes.
> 
> You probably know how many people read such instructions. But my
> main point is “not being surprised” and “tons of existing, mostly
> OS-independent, installation manuals out there”.

Yes, most of which thankfully say "create a real init script", if not
creating something else. ;)

> Plus, the +x bit can easily get lost… or, accidentally (“oh, let’s
> set all files with a shebang to +x and all others to -x”), restored.

And here I thought you were the one to prefer Unix admin tradition,
which would happily say "if you can't get permissions right you get to
keep all the pieces".

> It’s not a good indicator. Some version control systems also, for
> example, don’t handle it (RCS/CVS, which I’m told etckeeper can use),
> and people editing on DOS/Windows generally set it.

etckeeper handles permissions separately from the version control
system, precisely because not all VCSes handle it correctly.

> > (Personally, I *wish* that /etc/rc.local didn't exist at all by default
> > and you had to *create* it if you wanted it used.)
> 
> Oh, please, don’t go stomping over Unix admin tradition here ;-)

I will refrain from expanding on how much I care about "Unix admin
tradition". I'd like /etc to be *empty* on a freshly installed system,
thank you. ;)