Re: dpkg config files in /etc ?
On Thu, Oct 08, 1998 at 12:47:09PM -0400, Stephen J. Carpenter wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 08, 1998 at 11:48:08AM -0400, Peter S Galbraith wrote:
> >
> > "Thomas Gebhardt" <gebhardt@HRZ.Uni-Marburg.DE> writes:
> >
> > > the configuration files of all debian packages are located in /etc.
> > > That's really fine.
> > >
> > > But the package manager stores its configuration (access method,
> > > list of selected packages, ...) somewhere in /var/lib/dpkg. Why?
> >
> > Steve Dunham wrote:
> >
> > > Configuration goes in /etc, state goes in /var.
> >
> > But the access method is not a state, it's a configuration.
>
> I would disagree...
> In my mind (read; I dn't have a formal definition in front of me)
> "State" and "Configuration" have somewhat overlapping definitions.
>
> My general rule of thinking about it is:
> state is an opion within the program which can be changed and
> should be remembered next time.
> esp something which reasonably could change every time the program
> is used (it is concievable I have a CD today...in a month I am FTP
> upgrading)
>
> this is not something which is meant to be changed "by hand"
> besides...
> the main rational for /var is to allow other partitions to be mounted
> read only...
> if this were stored in /etc..../etc would HAVE to be mounted read-write
/etc CAN NOT be mounted, in should be part of root filesystem.
And root filesystem is mounted read-write.
And /etc/mtab definitly is a state but it should be in root partition.
But /var/lib/dpkg/info changes only during upgrading the system.
/usr must be remounted read-write for that. So maybe it should go
to /usr ? And in any case dpkg should check if /usr is mounted read-write
before unpacking a package.
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