Re: [Etherboot-developers] Moving ltsroot out of /tftpboot

[<ebi...@ln...>]

Jim McQuillan <ja...@mc...> writes:

> Hello all,
> 
> I sent this posting to several lists, because I think this
> is important, and I want to get comments from as many people
> as possible.
> 
> I want to move the location of the ltsroot directory.
> I've been talking on and off about this for many months now,
> and it's finally time to do it, before the next release of ltsp.
> 
> Currently, it exists in /tftpboot/lts, and I just really think
> that is not the correct place for it.
> 
> I thought it would be a simple matter of sending mail to the
> FHS (File Hierarchy Standards) guys, and ask them where it should
> reside, but they don't have a place for it.
> 
> 
> As part of this directory renaming task, I'm also going to
> begin planning for other (non intel) architectures.
> 
> That is, PowerPC, StrongArm and whatever other CPUs are being
> used in workstations.
> 
> I've had suggestions of many locations, but nobody could really
> put their finger on one perfect location.
> 
> Here are some of the suggestions:
> 
>   /var/lts
>   /var/opt/lts
>   /var/local/lts
>   /var/lib
>   /var/lib/lts
>   /usr/lib
>   /usr/lib/lts
>   /data
>   /export
>   /public
>   /srv
>   /sys
> 
> A few people on the FHS mailing list told me that there was work
> towards putting things like the files that Apache serves into
> "/srv/www" or "/srv/http".

This kind of scheme only works if you can swap out the server/project
on the data.  So you would need to make images that are non-ltsp specific.

> I think that would also be a reasonable place for the ltsp files to 
> reside.
> 
> So, I'm strongly considering putting the root directories into
> "/srv/ltsp".

No please.  
> 
> The basic structure would be:
> 
>     /srv/ltsp/root_i386     standard x86 based workstations
>     /srv/ltsp/root_i686     workstations with PII, PIII and Celerons
>     /srv/ltsp/root_ppc      workstations with PowerPC cpus
>     /srv/ltsp/root_arm      workstations with StrongArm cpus
> 
> 
> Initially, I'll have the root_i386, which would be useable by all
> of the X86 compatible workstations. Then, we'll add root_i686, which
> would
> include the binaries and libraries optimized for the better processors.
> 
> Also, with help from some of you, we'll have packages for ppc, strongarm
> and
> other alternative cpus.

It is a reasonable idea.  If we could find a naming scheme that would
allow multiple nfs roots per architecture that would be nice.  Say something
like:
/srv/nfsroot/i386-ltsp-linux

Currently at Linux NetworX we have been setting things up as:
/opt/lnxi/var/system-images/``name''/

And unless you can find something that will work for all systems export
filesystems nfs-root don't go in /srv.  I wouldn't mind having a
standard but I don't want to rush into it.  

If you can't think of a good solution for the general case, please
just do:
/opt/ltsp/i386/....

> Also, in the plans are support for the --relocate option to RPM.  this
> way, people can put the root directories anywhere they want.
> I'm hoping there is a similar option for .deb packages.

That sounds reasonable.

> So, any comments?

See above.

Eric