The problem was something simple: once I started using ./local instead of ./default the .conf files have been working as expected. I know about the precedence rules & the general "don't use ./default" rule-of-thumb. I still thought ./default would be OK since it is in the hierarchy & there are Splunk PDF deployment-app examples that use ./default. And I'd think that at least the first ./default deployment would do something as opposed to apparently nothing (at least for .conf files). Thanks everyone for your help & input. ... View more