Re: [Vectorlinux-devel] Packaging Standards Redux

[Jose J. R. <jo...@gm...>]

On 4/8/06, joh...@gm... <joh...@gm...> wrote:
> Some programs create their configuration files in an etc directory. I hav=
e
> seen some packages where such an etc directory was a subdirectory under /=
usr
> or /usr/X11R6. Since we are discussing standards for building packages wi=
th
> VL6, I believe that one of the arguments that should be passed to just ab=
out
> all configure scripts is --sysconfdir=3D/etc as opposed to letting the
> sysconfdir setting default to a sub under --prefix=3D/usr.
>
> While I'm on this thread, some programs also create local data, notably d=
bus,
> hal, and samba, among others. I want to propose that we explicitly pass
> --localstatedir=3D/var to the configure script for such programs where lo=
cal
> state data is created.
>
> Thoughts on these ideas, please.
>

I agree on /var, since this is sometimes mounted on a separate
partition even. On /etc, I had my misgivings at first, thinking that
programs that install to /usr should use /usr/etc; but after careful
thought and checking out /usr/local/etc (found it empty), /usr/etc
(only sane.d, printcap and wgetrc) and /opt/kde/etc (only xdg and
ksysguarddrc), I realised that, at least the apps I've packaged, and
also any others I've installed, use /etc anyway. It has the added
advantage of making it easier to backup such info.

Regards,
Joe1962