On Sun, 02 Mar 2008 11:02:25 +0000
Simon Kelley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> On a new installation, dnsmasq.conf.example and /etc/dnsmasq.conf are 
> the same, but once you change /etc/dnsmasq.conf, the package system
> will no longer change it, so the example file provides access to any 
> additions in later releases. It comes from the upstream distro, and 
> attempts to document how to do most common things.

"Examples" are, in the sense I'm thinking of:

  From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Example \Ex*am"ple\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Exampled}; p. pr. &
     vb. n. {Exampling}.]
     To set an example for; to give a precedent for; to exemplify;
     to give an instance of; to instance. 

...and note the singularity of 'an instance'.  Under 'instance':

     4. That which offers itself or is offered as an illustrative
        case; something cited in proof or exemplification; a case
        occurring; an example; as, we could find no instance of
        poisoning in the town within the past year.
        [1913 Webster +PJC]

A collection of examples in one file, (the current 'dnsmasq.conf'
omnibus format), tends to blur boundaries between singular & plural.
For users it's not obvious which options are tweaks, which are
necessary, and which tweaks & and necessary options interact, have
dependencies or are mutually exclusive.

Perhaps something like:

        dnsmasq.conf.default_backup

...would be a more descriptive name.

(Off topic: maybe we need a dependency manager, something like 'apt',
for config file settings?   Perhaps the main reason that networking is,
or can be, difficult is because of trying to map complex multi-level
server and client relationships to all these incompatible arbitrarily
structured flat text config files.)

Summing up:  omnibus 'dnsmasq.conf.example' backup misnamed?  Given
complexity, little examples can be easier to comprehend.

HTH...



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