Re: Resolutions to comments on LSB-FHS-TS_SPEC_V1.0

[t.sippel-dau@ic.ac.uk]

The keyboard of Daniel Quinlan emitted at some point in time:

> Before reverting to /var/spool/mail, the practical question to ask
> distributions is:
> 
>   If we explicitly allow /var/mail to be a symbolic link to
>   /var/spool/mail (or whereever), will you *consider* changing
>   programs to reference /var/mail instead of /var/spool/mail?
>   Upgraded systems would not need to have their mount point changed,
>   and old programs that reference /var/spool/mail would be okay for
>   one year.

Ten years.

> New systems would need to have a /var/spool/mail -> /var/mail symbolic
> link for about two years.

Ditto.

Software development may change fast, and many software developers will
change quickly in this case.  Documentation is much mmore difficult, and
what is actually used by users takes much longer again.

Since /var/mail and /var/spool/mail are "out there", it will not be
possible to use the "loosing" path for anything else for many years.

                                Thomas

*   Why not use metric units and get it right first time, every time ?
*
*   email: cmaae47 @ imperial.ac.uk