Re: symlinks

I think symlinks are a preferable form for the /etc/localtime configuration, precisely because updating the source has an effect. i.e. you can install new tzdata with updated information for your locale and not have to re-run zic -l to have it take effect by default. In Linux ext2fs and BSD ffs filesystems, symlinks with short targets are stored directly in the inode and so consume only as much filesystem space as an empty file. That is not to say that storage overhead is an issue to be concerned with, but since you mentioned it.