On 4/26/07, Roland Mainz <roland.mainz at nrubsig.org> wrote: > Peter Tribble wrote: > > On 4/25/07, Darren J Moffat <Darren.Moffat at sun.com> wrote: > > Default shell environment: TMPDIR > [snip] > > I am opposed to this change, for the following reasons: > > > > 1. It adds significant clutter to /tmp, ensuring that all systems > > will have a cluttered /tmp > > I disagree. Cluttering tons of files of various users in one single > directory is much more problematic for the (end-)_users_ than putting > everything into small subsirs, one per user. > This case is about _usability_ (e.g. improving the default shell > environment for the human beings) and not whether there is a pure > technical justification for such a change. The computer doesn't care > whether he has 10 or 500000 files in one directory but the users do have > problems such such a vast amount of data returned by $ ls -l /tmp #.
That's why I'm opposed. I don't want hundreds or thousands of directories if I look at /tmp/ with ls. > > 2. It adds additional login processing, adding some load to > > the system and slowing down logins. > > Erm... today's machines have more than sufficient power to handle a few > more statements in /etc/profile. In really don't see a problem with > that. > > > 3. There is no guarantee that TMPDIR will exist at any time - > > it could be deleted after login causing applications to fail. > > The parent directory has the sticky bit set. Only the user itself or > "root" may be able to do that. So that's two users who could mess up. Clutter up /tmp with unnecessary directories, and people will start creating badly written /tmp cleaners or start deleting stuff at random. > > 4. As TMPDIR is only set upon a certain set of conditions, > > it's possible that the value of TMPDIR will not be consistent > > between systems, or even between sessions on the same > > system, leading to erratic behaviour. > > By default TMPDIR will be set unless something "unexpected" happens, > e.g. the directory exists and has the wrong ownersship/permission. The > existing checks are only there as "safeguards" and to make sure that it > doesn't override an exiting TMPDIR value. I don't see any problems with > that. The unexpected is commonplace. I don't regard unpredictable behaviour as desirable. > > 5. Having run large multiuser systems, this proposal is unlikely > > to help - most of the clutter in /tmp was due to manual actions > > by users rather than applications using TMPDIR. > > I disagree - we have exactly this setup running since Solaris 8 and have > much better feedback for this setup than putting everything into one > directory. And I consider this setup as "stable" because it surived > students here who have tried more than often to try to play "little > games" with other users. So how does setting TMPDIR prevent users unloading junk randomly into /tmp? You've come to a solution based on your particular needs. And that's fine. But is your solution to your needs the best default for all users? In particular, is it the best solution for use by systems with inexperienced users and administrators? (Because it's that class of users who most need the defaults.) -- -Peter Tribble http://www.petertribble.co.uk/ - http://ptribble.blogspot.com/
