Re: Bug#796529: ITP: local-apt-repository -- Ready to use local apt repository
* Joachim Breitner <nomeata@debian.org> [150822 09:04]:
> Hi Jakub,
>
> Am Samstag, den 22.08.2015, 14:54 +0200 schrieb Jakub Wilk:
> > * Joachim Breitner <nomeata@debian.org>, 2015-08-22, 13:58:
> > > With this package installed, every Debian package (i.e. a *.deb
> > > file)
> > > dropped into /srv/local-apt-repository
> >
> > Sounds like an FHS violation: “no program should rely on a specific
> > subdirectory structure of /srv existing or data necessarily being
> > stored in /srv.”
>
> this was just discussed on IRC. Here is my rationale:
>
> Packages to be added to the repository fit the description of /srv
> quite perfectly. I quote.
>
> /srv : Data for services provided by this system
> Purpose
>
> /srv contains site-specific data which is served by this system.
>
> This main purpose of specifying this is so that users may find the
> location of the data files for particular service, and so that
> services which require a single tree for readonly data, writable
> data and scripts (such as cgi scripts) can be reasonably placed.
> Data that is only of interest to a specific user should go in that
> users' home directory.
> [..]
>
>
> So it is not wrong to use this directory. Also, all alternatives are
> wrong in some way as well.
I was under the (perhaps mistaken) impression that part of the purpose
of /srv was to allow complete admin discretion with the directory
structure, and that distributions were not to mandate any specific
directory names.
A low-priority debconf question asking the admin what directory to use,
suggesting /srv/local-apt-repository, would satisfy that. If the
question is not asked (or preseeded) the package would remain
unconfigured. This would not be the only package to require explicit
admin configuration to be operational, and the required configuration
would be very minimal.
Both apache2 and lighttpd use /var/www/html as the default directory to
serve, and do not touch /srv automatically. I don't know of any Debian
package that puts files in /srv.
While I agree that having a service fully functioning immediately after
installation is usually a desirable goal, I believe that it is more
important to not interfere with an admin's authority. The /var/local
directory was needed so admins had a directory that was guaranteed to
not be stepped on by the package manager. If we start letting packages
put things in /srv, then we may end up needing /srv/local for the same
reason, when /srv should already serve that purpose.
...Marvin
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