Currently in Gentoo /etc/rmt is a direct symlink to a binary file. This has the nasty property of having a binary file in /etc, a directory which is often grepped and processed as text. I'd like to suggest putting a wrapper script instead. Debian already did. Cf. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/1999/07/msg00031.html and http://www.gnusolaris.org/cgi-bin/trac.cgi/browser/gnusolaris1/tar/trunk/debian/rmt.sh?rev=20255 This wrapper script would contain a word of explanation and wouldn't confuse processes expecting ASCII in /etc anymore.
forcing grep to process everything as text is just stupid anyways ... doing a normal grep on /etc ignores all the binary files added wrapper script because of the neat explanation rather than catering to people forcing grep to do lame things
Whew... that was fast. About grep, maybe it was a lame explanation indeed, but there isn't only grep, and some things (especially hand-made) may choke. Besides, FHS says that `No binaries may be located under /etc.' <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/2.2/fhs-3.7.html> (Granted, it was a symlink, I'm not sure how it fits in with the standard.) Anyway, whatever the rationale, thanks for fixing it, and that quick :-)
