Bug#638060: debian-policy: §9.1.1: FHS should also be a "must" for generated files
Russ Allbery wrote:
> Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> writes:
>> Russ Allbery wrote:
>>> I guess the concern is that you feel this language implies that packages
>>> aren't allowed to support non-FHS configuration? Would this be better?
>>>
>>> The location of all files and directories must comply with the
>>> Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS), version 2.3, with the
>>> exceptions noted below, and except where doing so would
>>> violate other terms of Debian Policy or where the local
>>> administrator has explicitly configured the software to use
>>> different paths. The following exceptions to the FHS apply:
>
>> With s/software/system/, sounds good to me.
>
> That doesn't sound right to me. Surely the relevant configuration is that
> of the individual software packages (setting DocumentRoot to /web, setting
> TMPDIR when running some application to /tempfs/foo, or changing Postfix's
> mail_spool_directory setting to /mail), not only system-wide
> configuration?
Those all sound like examples of configuring the system, except for
TMPDIR which can be used as a run-time option and doesn't fit with
what I usually think of as configuration[*]. Do you have some clearer
wording in mind?
However: now that I've looked more carefully at the FHS, I see it
explicitly makes statements like the following:
/home is a fairly standard concept, but it is clearly a site-specific
filesystem. [9] The setup will differ from host to host. Therefore, no
program should rely on this location. [10]
The constraints the FHS allows applications to rely on actually seem
pretty conservative. Cases where they aren't are probably
specification bugs and relying on the FHS means it is more likely that
they can be found and fixed. I'd be fine with your original one-line
change.
Thanks to Bernard for a useful example.
Sorry for the fuss,
Jonathan
[*] e.g., are one-off command-line options configuration?
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