10.3. Editing configuration files

Local system configuration is performed by editing the appropriate configuration files and then reloading or restarting the corresponding service(s).

All important system components, such as daemons, services, have their own configuration files, some have more than one. These files are generally stored under the /etc directory. There are exceptions from this rule, of course, but the majority of configuration files are in that directory. Some files are directly stored under /etc, but most services store the configuration files for the services in a subdirectory. For example, PNS stores a number of configuration files under /etc/PNS.

The configuration files are usually plain-text ASCII or XML files, and can be edited with any text editor. By default, the following text editors are installed: joe, nano, and vi.

Tip

Before editing configuration files make backup copies, for example, using the following command:cp filename filename.bak

Warning

PNS replaces the configuration file of several services with a symbolic link that points to a configuration file that is maintained by PNS. Do not edit such files directly, because the changes will be automatically removed at the next upgrade to a new version of PNS.

To edit such files properly, first break the symbolic link, and replace the broken link with a file. Following that, the file can be edited. The list of files replaced with symbolic links is the following:/etc/apparmor.d/abstractions/base_reduced, /etc/apparmor.d/abstractions/nameservice, /etc/default/spamassassin, /etc/default/snmpd, /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf, /etc/grub.d/10_linux/etc/openvpn/up.py, /etc/init/procps-late.conf, /etc/init.d/kdump, /etc/ip6tables.conf.in, /etc/ip6tables.conf.var, /etc/logrotate.d, /etc/network/if-up.d/group , /etc/network/if-up.d/dhcp3-relay, /etc/openswan/ipsec.conf, /etc/rc.local, /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf