Re: [BUG] inconsistency in $localstatedir and $runstatedir

[Alejandro Colomar]

Hi Alfred,

On 7/17/22 16:18, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:

    How can $localstatedir be $prefix/var and at the same time $runstatedir
    be /var/run (notice no prefix) if it is defined as $localstatedir/run.

Because prefix is normally /usr, and it was/is common to use /usr/var
for exactly that purpose.  Where as runstatedir was in /var/run and
not /usr.

    Since the FHS doesn't define /usr/local/var, and my Debian system lacks
    it, and I don't think people are going to start symlinking
    /usr/local/var to /var, I guess the coding standard really intended to
    define $localstatedir as /var.

Yes, and no.  On GNU/Linux, it was meant to be /usr/var (prefix =
"/usr"), on GNU systems it was meant to be /var (prefix = "")

If you want to do this on other systems, the best way is to setup a
config.site file where you specify the locations explisltly.

    The bug is also present in the GNU Make documentation, which seems to be
    just a copy of the GNU coding standards.

This isn't a bug, it works as intended.

Documentation says:

  $prefix
      Should normally be */usr/local*

  $localstatedir
      Should normally be */usr/local/var*
      But write it as *$prefix/var* (= /usr/local/var; OK)

  $runstatedir
      Should normally be */var/run*
      But write it as *$localstatedir/run* (=  $prefix/var/run)
                                           (=  /usr/local/var/run)
                                           (!= /var/run; NOK)

Do you realize the bug now?

Cheers,

Alex

--
Alejandro Colomar
<http://www.alejandro-colomar.es/>

Oh, there _is_ a bug. Compare what the documentation says, with a bit of variable expansion that I did to show the bug (between parentheses):

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