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Re: packages size versus files under dpkg control



W. Borgert wrote:
> Back to your question: I personally hate files that are not
> under dpkg control, because you cannot check using debsums,
> dpkg -L, dpkg -S, etc.

This raises a topic I do not understand very well.
Since we are already on the topic, may I ask for further
advice?

Suppose that I maintained a package foo.  Foo must
autogenerate a permanent file during postinst (for
example, "foo-manual.ps", too big to include prebuilt in
the binary package).  Because W.B. and I hate files that
are not under dpkg control, I want to store this file
under /var/lib/foo/, symbolically linking thereto from
an appropriate point in /usr/.  However, FHS does not
seem to recommend such usage.  If /var/lib/foo/ is not
the right place, then is there a proper canonical place
in the filesystem for permanent, postinst-generated
files under postinst/prerm control rather than dpkg
control?

Somehow, storing such files outside /var/ bothers me.
Maybe it should not bother me.  I don't know.  If it
should not, then please help me to see the light, so to
speak.

I see nothing in Policy 6, Policy 10, or FHS which
answers the question, so either I am just not seeing it
or I am looking in the wrong place.  If W.B. or others
wish to comment, I would be interested in what they had
to say, because I am considering a future package which
would pose exactly this kind of problem.  Thanks.

-- 
Thaddeus H. Black
508 Nellie's Cave Road
Blacksburg, Virginia 24060, USA
+1 540 961 0920, t@b-tk.org, thb@debian.org

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