Core packages are using %config for files being installed under /usr

[Ralf Corsepius]

1. You are over-interpreting the FHS:

* It nowhere says, admins must not modify/customize files below /usr.
* It nowhere says, admins must not install files outside of rpm's 
  control.
* It nowhere says, /usr is "vendor-exclusive".
* it nowhere says installation must be performed read-only (this would
  be ridiculous).
* read-only only makes sense at run-time.

Anybody with a little knowledge on the FHS's history knows that, when
they say "read-only", they mean "read-only at run-time", in the sense of
setting "/usr" read-only to prevent arbitrary users/program to write
their for "security-reason". 

font.alias is not affected by this at all.


2. %config is NOT related to this topic at all. It's about whether rpm
knows whether it shall override a file by brute force or play it nice to
the user. It doesn't affect the ability to set /usr read-only at all.


3. The font.alias and mkfontdir stuff actually is a very simple, but
elegant concept to provide some sort of distributed database, without
having bloat a package with scattered files all over the filesystem.

You can find several other packages applying similar working principles
all over a linux system.


4. The font.alias/mkfontdir approach is part of the traditional
X11-packaging for a very long time (ca. 1990) and predates the FHS and
Linux.


Ralf