On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 1:15 PM, Luca Barbato <lu_z...@gentoo.org> wrote: > Fabio Rossi wrote: >> >> I'm proposing to reorganize the files related to Gentoo inside /var/lib. >> Currently we have this situation (at least on my system): >> >> /var/lib/eselect >> /var/lib/gentoo/enews >> /var/lib/herdstat/ >> /var/lib/module-rebuild >> /var/lib/portage >> >> The main dir should be something like /var/lib/gentoo, so I'd see all >> gentoo-related files as >> >> /var/lib/gentoo/eselect >> /var/lib/gentoo/enews >> /var/lib/gentoo/herdstat/ >> /var/lib/gentoo/module-rebuild >> /var/lib/gentoo/portage >> >> What do you think about? > > Looks quite wrong. I'd do /var/lib/gentoo/enews -> /var/lib/enews btw
A few things, mostly relating to trying to convince me to fix this (being open source, you could easily fix it yourself). 1) There is no right or wrong place to put data, specifically if we state that we do not follow standards (like the FHS) that may in fact make specific recommendations, and we have done so in the past. 2) There is not a real problem (technically) with the current placement, aside from some people think it is odd. I am unaware of users that are trying to put /var/lib/ on an NFS mount but can't because of our scheme; or other ideas for which the current scheme limits users. 3) Moving is costly. - We have to author code to migrate existing news repositories - We have to author code to check both places (at a minimum, to migrate the old repository, possibly at runtime, or to warn them of the old repository) - How long will this code remain in the codebase (forever?) 4) The benefits are slim. - /var/lib is more orderly for a subset of users. - What else? The point is we make decisions all the time and some of them are bad and are expensive to fix and we have to live with them. The location was actually specified in the GLEP[1] so part of me asks why this was not brought up then (it was a design defect; and not an implementation defect). Data from software engineers tends to show that defects in the design phase that are caught in the maintenance phase tend to be very expensive to fix and I think there are bigger fish to fry in the package manager world; but feel free to send a patch as always (this is OSS after all). [1] http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0042.html#client-side > > lu > > -- > > Luca Barbato > Gentoo Council Member > Gentoo/linux Gentoo/PPC > http://dev.gentoo.org/~lu_zero > > >
