On Sat, Mar 15, 2014 at 6:31 PM, Akemi Yagi <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 15, 2014 at 1:45 PM, Nico Kadel-Garcia <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> That Alan didn't include, because if that's Alan Bartlett from Samba
>> work he's *brilliant* and probably already knows all this stuff, is
>
> Err, you mean Andrew Bartlett from Samba?  Alan Bartlett is a
> co-founder of the ELRepo Project.

Thank you, I meant Andrew. Alan, my apologies: I do some Samba work as
a hobby, and misremembered first names.

>> that the "/etc/grub.conf" file is a symlink to /boot/grub/grub.con. If
>> you edit it with some editors, it will replace the symlink with your
>> new file, and not change the *real* file in /boot/grub/grub.conf which
>> is the one actually used. Enthusiastic chaos will ensue.
>
> I edit /etc/grub.conf all the time. It's just easier to type than the
> real file name. And editing /etc/grub.conf does change the
> /boot/grub/grub.conf file.
>
> Akemi

The default handling of symlinks is very, very dependent on the text
editor. Most interactive editors, such as "vi" or "emacs", will
preserve the symlink and edit the target. Other tools, such as "sed
-i", will break the symlink, edit the contents of the symlink as it
originally appeared, and instead save the modified original *contents*
of the symlink target while breaking the actual symlink.

It gets even more fun when you try to source control the changes:...
That's why I urge going to /boot/grub and editing the *target* file,
and applying source control there as well.