[cups.development] [RFE] STR #3344: Cups rewrites configuration files.

[Michael Sweet]

[STR Closed w/o Resolution]

The symlink issue is STR #2136 and not to be fixed.

In general, we do not support external management of cupsd configuration
files. Because cupsd must be stopped and then restarted when changes are
made to the configuration files, we do not recommend doing this. There are
users doing this, but they have to stop cupsd, update the configuration
files, and start cupsd when updating the configuration from a central
repository (which usually means doing so during down time...)  Moreover,
since the cupsd.conf file often contains system-specific information, it
is usually not feasible to share the same cupsd.conf file between systems.

Only cupsd.conf is considered to be user-editable, and even then we
recommend using the corresponding CUPS commands or APIs to update it so
that the scheduler can be restarted properly. Updates to cupsd.conf only
occur when a new cupsd.conf file is pushed to the scheduler.

The printers.conf and classes.conf files are maintained by cupsd and
should never be edited outside of CUPS unless cupsd is stopped. Updates to
this file occur when the printer state changes or when a user adds,
modifies, or deletes a queue.

The information in the various configuration files is not appropriate for
any of the FHS-defined /var directories - everything is configuration data
(not spool, cache, or other temporary data) - and so it belongs in /etc.

Link: http://www.cups.org/str.php?L3344
Version:  -feature
Fix Version: Will Not Fix