Re: Bug#672160: Directory /boot/console-setup

[Sven Joachim <svenjoac@gmx.de>]

On 2012-05-10 18:43 +0200, Anton Zinoviev wrote:

> [Please preserve the CC to 672160@bugs.debian.org because I am not 
> subscribed to debian-devel.]
>
> First the problem in few words.  The package console-setup needs an 
> access to a directory similar to /var very early during the boot process 
> - when /var is not yet mounted.  Currently it creates files in the 
> directory /etc/console-setup.  As a result when the package is purged it 
> is impossible to tell which files in /etc/console-setup are 
> automatically generated (so they have to be removed) and which are put 
> there by the admin (so we are not permitted to remove them).
>
> One possible solution is to generate the files in a directory named 
> /etc/console-setup/.cache and to put a file /etc/console-setup/.cache/README
> explaining the purpose of this directory and warning the admin that the 
> package is free to remove or overwrite at any time any files in this 
> directory.
>
> Please don't complain that this is a policy violation. :) I think at the 
> moment there is no solution of the problem without policy violation and 
> the packages kbd, console-tools and console-setup have been happily 
> doing policy violations regarding /etc since the very first version of 
> Debian.
>
> The second solution I propose is to generate the files in a directory 
> /boot/console-setup.  After all the whole need of such directory arises 
> due to the specifics of the boot process.

Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but /boot seems to be a very bad
choice for the location, simply because it is not available any earlier
than /var.

Cheers,
       Sven