Bug#191036: /run/ shelved

[Thomas Hood <jdthood@yahoo.co.uk>]

Having discussed this with several of the people who
originally supported it, I am under the impression that this
proposal is shelved for now.

In the short term we should work toward getting as many
variable files out of /etc/ as we can.  Programs that cannot
directly use a location outside of /etc/ to store their variable 
files should at least be made to work properly with a symlink.
I have set up a web page that documents this effort:
    http://panopticon.csustan.edu/thood/readonly-root.html
If the files themselves can be stored in /var/ then the problem
is pretty much solved.

There remains a question about what to do with variable files
that have to be stored somewhere before networking comes up
and may not be reaped.  These were the files that were to go
in /run/.  For now these files are either staying in /etc/
or are being moved to /var/run/ .  The problem with using /var/
is that some people mount /var/ over the network.  Yet in the
end we really want to remove these files from  /etc/.  If /run/
is not made available then these files will need to be
eliminated entirely or else stored in /var/run/, and users
that mount /var/ over the network will have to do something
tricky to preserve these files when /var/ is mounted.  Another
solution could be to stipulate that something like /tmp/var/
be used instead of /var/ until /var/ is mounted.

--
Thomas Hood