Re: [BUG] inconsistency in $localstatedir and $runstatedir

[Alejandro Colomar (man-pages)]

Hi Paul,

On 7/14/22 18:11, Paul Smith wrote:
> On Thu, 2022-07-14 at 14:16 +0200, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> > How can $localstatedir be $prefix/var and at the same time
> > $runstatedir be /var/run (notice no prefix) if it is defined as
> > $localstatedir/run.
>
> This I don't know about: it might be a problem in the description.
>
> > Since the FHS doesn't define /usr/local/var, and my Debian system
> > lacks it, and I don't think people are going to start symlinking
> > /usr/local/var to /var, I guess the coding standard really intended
> > to define $localstatedir as /var.
>
> No, I don't think this is the case.  The GNU standards assume that all
> software is installed into /usr/local by default, and that would assume
> /usr/local/var.
>
> If you want your software installed into "system" directories such as
> /usr/bin, /var, /lib, etc. instead of /usr/local then you're expected
> to reset these values yourself to what you want them to be when you
> configure the software.

I want to use /usr/local.  Not "system directories".  I was just trying 
to use the correct paths, and found some broken docs about it, and had a 
guess :)

> The runstatedir is a special case because it's a system-managed
> directory (in that the system will clean it), which is usually shared
> by all services regardless of where they're installed.  Unless the
> system is supposed to also manage /usr/local/run or similar?  I hadn't
> heard that but I've not checked.

Hmm, it makes sense.  /usr/local/var is persistent stuff, so should be 
in /usr/local for sure.

/var/run isn't, and so it can live there.

So, either the description should be fixed so that $runstatedir doesn't 
depend on $localstatedir, or so that it is /usr/local/var/run.  I don't 
know which one should be preferred.  Maybe using /usr/local/var/run is 
better, because it allows symlinking to /var/run/local or /var/run 
depending on preferences.

Cheers,

Alex

--
Alejandro Colomar
Linux man-pages comaintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
http://www.alejandro-colomar.es/