On FreeBSD most system configuration is centralized in /etc/rc.conf, which sets options for system startup and all well-behaved daemons. Most people however don’t know that rc.conf.local also is sourced by the same scripts. This makes it possible to use a generic rc.conf to specify site/company wide defaults, and configure host specific settings in rc.conf.local. One advantage is that rc.conf.local usually ends up being quite short which simplifies host management. Using this scheme works extremely well when it’s combined with cfengine and source control. Versioning and commit mailinglists can do truly amazing things for sysadmin productivity.