FreeBSD started with options and you could edit /etc/make.conf You could also make them available for specific packages, for example: .if ${.CURDIR:N*/por

FreeBSD started with options and you could edit /etc/make.conf You could also make them available for specific packages, for example: .if ${.CURDIR:N*/ports/www/apache2*} == "" SUEXEC_DOCROOT=/usr/local/www SUEXEC_USERDIR=public_html .endif Then they implemented the ncurses approach which made it more user friendly. You can still change some defaults for example I have this: OPTIONS_UNSET+=X11 OPTIONS_UNSET+=DOCS OPTIONS_UNSET+=EXAMPLES OPTIONS_UNSET+=CUPS OPTIONS_UNSET+=OPENGL Here's more how to use them: https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-ports/blob/main/Mk/bsd.options.mk https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-ports/blob/main/Mk/bsd.op... The options are also stored in the config as you mentioned and if a new option is added the old one's state is preserved. Overall this reminds me early days with smartphones and iPhone users making excuses why not having copy&paste was better.