Re: /var/lib, /var/mail
At 17:32 +0100 1999-07-25, Ian Jackson wrote:
I see that the policy manual has been changed (s3.1) to require FHS
compliance rather than FSSTND compliance.
I'd like to make two proposals:
* That we make an exception for /var/state. Ie, we mandate that
packages us /var/lib. This change has no purpose and will only be
hassle for us.
/var/state is gone in the FHS 2.1 drafts.
* That we make an exception for /var/mail. Same as before, but last I
heard there were rumours that FHS were going to abandon /var/mail.
When I was last at an LSB meeting all the other distributions wanted
/var/spool/mail back.
FHS 2.1 draft 2 /var/mail wording:
5.8 /var/mail : User mailbox files
The mail spool must be accessible through /var/mail and the mail spool
files must take the form <username>. /var/mail may be a symbolic link
to another directory.
User mailbox files in this location should be stored in the standard
UNIX mailbox format.
BEGIN RATIONALE
The logical location for this directory was changed from /var/spool/mail
in order to bring FHS in-line with nearly every UNIX implementation.
This change is important for inter-operability since a single /var/mail
is often shared between multiple hosts and multiple UNIX implementations
(despite NFS locking issues).
It is important to note that there is no requirement to physically move
the mail spool to this location. However, programs and header files
should be changed to use /var/mail.
--
Joel Klecker (aka Espy) Debian GNU/Linux Developer
<URL:mailto:jk@espy.org> <URL:mailto:espy@debian.org>
<URL:http://web.espy.org/> <URL:http://www.debian.org/>
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