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Re: [TCLUG:13724] Debian info



Timothy Wilson said:
> I'm considering installing Debian in an effort to extend my experience
> with Linux. I'd be interested to have someone list a few of the major
> differences between Debian and the RedHat/Mandrake/etc. distros. Are there
> significant differences in the way the config files are arranged, the
> startup scripts, etc.? I understand something about the packaging system
> differences, so don't bother going into that part. How familiar will
> Debian seem to a moderately experienced RedHat/Mandrake user?

Speaking as a Debianite who's never used Red Hat or Mandrake...

I've seen a number of requests from Red Hat users about the Debian startup
sequence.  Debian puts all the startup scripts in /etc/init.d and has
symlinks to them from a group of /etc/rcN.d directories, where N corresponds
to the runlevel represented by the directory.

Also, I've gotten the impression that Red Hat uses runlevels a lot more than
Debian does - I've seen occasional references by RH users to using 'init 5'
to start X.  The Debian packages for xdm, etc. activate themselves on all
(multiuser) runlevels.  Actually, taking a quick look through my /etc/rcN.d
directories, it appears that (as far as services are concerned), runlevels
2-5 are identical.  (I've personally never used a non-default runlevel other
than 0 (halt) and 6 (reboot).)

As for general configuration, Debian is dogmatic that all config files live
in /etc.  Even if a piece of software wants its config to be somewhere else,
Debian will place the file in /etc and create a symlink from where the
program expects it.  AFAICT, there are no exceptions, unless you count files
that are generated by the program at runtime and generally ignored by users
and admins, such as leafnode's list of available newsgroups.

Documentation is all in /usr/doc and /usr/share/doc - although different
versions of Debian don't necessarily agree, each version is consistent with
itself.  (IIRC, Slink put everything in /usr/doc, Potato moved it to
/usr/share/doc, and I've heard a rumor that Woody will move it back to
/usr/doc.  But I could have that backwards.)

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