Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 15:24:44 +1000 From: David Dawes <dawes@rf900.physics.usyd.edu.au> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: My FreeBSD Wish List... Message-ID: <19970910152444.50890@rf900.physics.usyd.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <19970910142634.55557@lemis.com>; from Greg Lehey on Wed, Sep 10, 1997 at 02:26:34PM %2B0930 References: <8767safewy.fsf@pippin.jblhome.ping.dk> <199709092121.OAA29539@vader.cs.berkeley.edu> <19970910143042.08357@rf900.physics.usyd.edu.au> <19970910142634.55557@lemis.com>
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On Wed, Sep 10, 1997 at 02:26:34PM +0930, Greg Lehey wrote: >On Wed, Sep 10, 1997 at 02:30:42PM +1000, David Dawes wrote: >> On Tue, Sep 09, 1997 at 02:21:27PM -0700, Satoshi Asami wrote: >> On a partly related note, a future XFree86 release will put config files >> (like xdm config files for example) in a directory hierarchy below /var >> (most likely /var/X11). It is possible that future X11 releases from The >> Open Group will do this too. This will make it easier to use a read-only >> /usr/X11R6. None of this has been set in stone yet, so if anyone has >> any comments about this, please let me know. > >Well, at the risk of the lives of a few protestants, why /var? My >reading of /var is that it is for frequently changing files, such as >spool files. I agree that it would be nice to have a read-only /usr, >but I think it would be worth giving a bit more consideration for the >new home of the config files. It is following the precedent set by (for example) Digital Unix and some Linux distributions. CDE (as seen on Solaris 2.5 and Digital Unix) uses /etc/dt for CDE's config file overrides. We also need a place to put files that might be created at run-time (like the complied xkb map) which should really go to some writeable place that isn't publicly writeable. Currently those files get written under /usr/X11R6 when the server's uid/euid is 0. Perhaps those two issues should be separated. FWIW, the hier(5) man page on Digital Unix 4.0 gives the same basic description of /var as the hier(7) man page on FreeBSD 2.2.2, and admittedly config files don't fit into that description. A difference is that on the page on Digital Unix describes /var/adm/sendmail as being the place for sendmail configuration and database files. The nearest exception I can find on FreeBSB is /var/cron/tabs (which isn't mentioned in the hier(7) man page I have here). Anyway, I'm looking for suggestions and comments at this stage. If possible, I'd like to see something common to all the platforms XFree86 supports, and something which isn't different from existing solutions just for the sake of it. David
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