When templating, ME is typically a softlink to the appropriate host subdirectory. This softlink is different for each machine and should not be updated by the template process. Any system-wise configuration file that needs to be personalized is typically turned into a softlink through /conf/ME. For example, /etc/rc.conf.local would be turned into a softlink pointing to /conf/ME/rc.conf.local. On any given machine, ME is typically a link to the hostname which also exists as a subdirectory in the /conf directory. So, for each machine you do: cd /conf ln -s this_machines_name ME The ME link is not used with diskless booting. It is designed for templating where each destination box has its own local disk.