$FreeBSD$ kernel, rc.local, and xdm-config are typically softlinks. Plus other files, of course, depending on how you setup your system. rc.local and xdm-config might be softlinks into HT.DISKLESS, allowing you to ease system administration when managing many diskless workstations. You can also play other tricks, such as I play in rc.conf.local by having it source ../HT.DISKLESS/rc.conf.local to get class-based defaults. Note: the ttys file below contains an example of how to have X startup on boot. apollo:/conf/209.157.86.12# ls -la total 7 drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 512 Feb 9 00:27 . drwxr-xr-x 8 root wheel 512 Feb 8 22:48 .. lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 20 Feb 8 22:04 fstab -> ../HT.DISKLESS/fstab lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 17 Jan 24 23:33 kernel -> /kernel.diskless2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 133 Feb 8 22:04 rc.conf.local lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 23 Jan 25 00:41 rc.local -> ../HT.DISKLESS/rc.local -rw------- 1 root wheel 539 Jan 17 15:29 ssh_host_key -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 343 Jan 17 15:29 ssh_host_key.pub lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 26 Feb 9 00:27 syslog.conf -> ../HT.DISKLESS/syslog.conf -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1408 Feb 8 19:54 ttys lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 25 Jan 25 00:38 xdm-config -> ../HT.DISKLESS/xdm-config