On Wed, Nov 12, 2003 at 04:16:42PM +0000, Toby Dickenson wrote: > On Wednesday 12 November 2003 14:18, Paul de Vrieze wrote: > > > > With that in mind, why is there a /var? use /tmp ;-) > > > > Because /tmp is for shortlived temporary files. /var is for files that > > can be regenerated, but that regeneration is allowed to be expensive.
/var is the compliment to /usr and /etc, not /tmp. > That description applies to /var/cache. but not all of /var. > http://www.pathname.com/fhs/2.2/fhs-5.5.html > > /var isnt only for things that can be regenerated. It should be for files that are dynamically generated, as opposed to static configuration and binary files. > The content of /var/mail in particular is irreplaceable. To users, maybe, but it's hardly critical to the operation of the system. > http://www.pathname.com/fhs/2.2/fhs-5.1.html > > > tmp must not contain such caches. On /tmp one is able to run a tmp > > reaper, on /var it would be less than desirable. You should be able to run: $ find /var -type f -exec cp /dev/null {} \; $ reboot -f and still have a bootable system. Consider doing that with /usr or /etc to see the distinction. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
