[ On Fri, December 11, 1998 at 13:34:05 (+1100), Simon Burge wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: /usr/pkg/etc vs. /etc (and /var too).
>
> So, it seems to be 4 for /var and 2 for ${PREFIX}/var.  To be honest
> (and as I've already mentioned, I first tried /var), I don't really care
> which, just as long as most people agree.

(I'm going to use /usr/pkg instead of $PREFIX or $LOCALBASE....)

Make that 4.5 votes for /var, though I'd be just as happy if it was
/usr/pkg/var and by default there was a symlink there pointing at
/var/pkg (hopefully done relatively so remote mounts other than at /
would work as expected, eg. /usr/pkg/var -> ../../var/pkg).

The idea is to make it simple to do the right thing when /usr/pkg is
shared between diskless clients, but not to preclude the ability to
segregate package stuff from system stuff (since you can easily do that
by setting "LOCALBASE=/"!).

> I suspect that in general, the same people are going to have the same
> preferences for the /etc issue, although I too am in the /etc and not
> ${PREFIX/etc camp.  _If_ /etc is the final decision, the question of
> rc.d type files still comes up - would it be acceptable to have both
> configuration files in /etc and startup files in ${PREFIX}/etc/rc.d ?

I've the opposite feeling about /usr/pkg/etc, and with a full vote in
favour of it, though I would be just about as happy if the default were
to have a symlink there pointing at /var/pkg/etc or /var/pkg.etc (NOT
/etc/pkg!).

If "we" are going to bother having /usr/pkg at all then we must
segregate start up scripts and config files too.

The stuff in /var is specific and unique to a single host machine,
regardless of whether it's system stuff, or not, so segregating it
further isn't terrribly important.  You would likely never share /var
(and/or /usr/pkg/var), but you might share /usr/pkg/etc, or you might
not (which is the reason for using a symlink to /var/pkg.etc if you
don't want to share it).  However if you'd like to be able to use
/usr/pkg as a prototype for building install media or similar, *then*
you might want to have /usr/pkg/var, but on a real machine you'd likely
have the symlink pointing at /var/pkg.

As for start-up scripts, well unless they're going to be full-featured
daemon/service control scripts (ala SysV with "start|stop|status" and
similar options) then I'd just as soon they either not exist (three line
scripts that start a daemon if the binary exists are useless), or
instead be put in */sbin or some place similar.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

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