Re: /var vs /usr/pkg/var

["Ian D. Leroux" <idleroux%fastmail.fm@localhost>]

On Fri, 10 Jun 2016 19:56:36 +0200 Hauke Fath
<hauke%Espresso.Rhein-Neckar.DE@localhost> wrote:

> On Fri, 10 Jun 2016 14:41:41 +0200, Thomas Klausner wrote:
> > texmf creates lots of files in /var during installation.
> > Shouldn't these live in ${PREFIX}/var?
> 
> Is ${PREFIX}/var even a thing? How about ${VARBASE}?
> 
> With my sysadmin hat on: A machine has one configuration dir - /etc - 
> and one state dir - /var. I do not enjoy having to chase around 
> configuration and state files on a system, and especially when
> packages start keeping variable data under ${PREFIX}.

I'd add that keeping static and time-varying data well-separated is
important to those of us who mount /usr and ${PREFIX} read-only.
${VARBASE} does what I want by default, and can be easily
set to ${PREFIX}/var by someone who wants that instead.  Hardcoding
${PREFIX}/var does not do what I want by default, and is less flexible.

--
IDL