Subject: Re: /var/db/btdev.xml (from source-changes)
To: Jason Thorpe <thorpej@shagadelic.org>
From: Johnny C. Lam <jlam@pkgsrc.org>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 07/28/2006 20:07:56
On Fri, Jul 28, 2006 at 12:58:22PM -0700, Jason Thorpe wrote:
> 
> On Jul 28, 2006, at 12:24 AM, Iain Hibbert wrote:
> 
> >Is all of /var considered ephemeral or is it just /var/db?  In  
> >reality how
> >likely is it that this will be lost? (do people use mfs for /var?)
> 
> Actually, there's lots of important stuff in /var.
> 
> According to hier(7):
> 
>                 db/        miscellaneous automatically generated  
> system-spe-
>                            cific database files, and persistent  
> files used in
>                            the maintenance of third party software.
> 
>                            pkg          default location for  
> metadata related
>                                         to third party software  
> packages.  See
>                                         pkg_install(1) for more  
> details of the
>                                         NetBSD Packages Collection,  
> or pkgsrc.
> 
> So, seems like /var/db is a fine place to put your BT device  
> connection information.  I don't see any need for it to change  
> (except for the file name to end in ".plist" :-)

Over in pkgsrc-land, we feel that /var/db/pkg is a mistake that we
originally imported from FreeBSD ages ago, and we're looking to correct
that in the near future.  Please don't hold up /var/db/pkg as a shining
example of proper /var usage.

	Cheers,

	-- Johnny Lam <jlam@pkgsrc.org>