> I think it could be useful if packages stopped hard-coding /var. Maybe it
> could be called VARBASE, VARDIR, VAR_DIR, whatever. I know this would be a
> lot of work, because of some many patches or code is hard-coded to use
> /var. By default, it could be set to /var (although hier(7) says
> "/var/pkg/").

GNU Autoconf calls it (/var) as localstatedir or sharedstatedir.  The
Info manual says,

--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<
 - Variable: localstatedir
     The directory for installing modifiable single-machine data.

 - Variable: sharedstatedir
     The directory for installing modifiable architecture-independent
     data.
--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<

I do prefer these to VARDIR or whatever...

Masao