[Fedora-packaging] Re: Packaging into /srv? (was: FHS Compliance?)

Nicolas Mailhot nicolas.mailhot at laposte.net
Mon Oct 23 18:08:36 UTC 2006


Le lundi 23 octobre 2006 à 13:28 -0400, Matthew Miller a écrit :
> On Mon, Oct 23, 2006 at 07:15:48PM +0200, Nicolas Mailhot wrote:
> > > > FHS says both that we must not impose any particular directory
> > > > structure within /srv, and that we must use /srv as the "default
> > > > location" for storing data used by services. The only way to satisfy
> > > > that would be to do the equivalent of "DocumentRoot /srv" for every
> > > > service, which would be simply stupid.
> > > It doesn't say you must not have any particular defaults in srv -- just
> > > that applications must not expect it to be in any particular way.
> > Replace applications there by third-party applications
> 
> No, I don't think so, actually.
> 
> > Obviously Fedora-packaged apps can expect whatever Fedora layout Fedora
> > provides.
> 
> Why is that obvious?

Because it's unreasonable to forbid an entity to rely on its own
actions? The FHS wrote its specification in the context of an app
installed on a foreign system, not in the context of a distro which
controls the whole system

The FHS basically writes app authors must write apps so app users can
configure whatever /srv/ layout they want. It says no entity can expect
another entity to provide any particular /srv/ layout.

But in the context of a distribution :
— we are providing a /srv/ layout for ourselves (acting in-stead of
users, which is what distributions are supposed to do)
— users are still free to reconfigure apps with whatever policy they
prefer if they don't like the Fedora one.

I don't see how the document could be read otherwise. The alternative
would be to forbid *any* pre-configuration for *any* service the FHS
puts in /srv/, which is plain ridiculous (should apps ignore conf files
settings and embark in automagical /srv/ exploration heuristics too?
that's another absolutist reading)

And BTW pre-configuring is *safe*. *No* app author can complain Fedora
is providing a particular /srv layout — the FHS forbids them to expect a
particular layout. That includes an empty /srv.

-- 
Nicolas Mailhot




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