From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Mar 17 18:49:46 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AC29410656C1 for ; Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:49:46 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tmseck@netcologne.de) Received: from smtp6.netcologne.de (smtp6.netcologne.de [194.8.194.26]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 740328FC2A for ; Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:49:46 +0000 (UTC) Received: from wcfields.tmseck.homedns.org (xdsl-89-0-137-79.netcologne.de [89.0.137.79]) by smtp6.netcologne.de (Postfix) with SMTP id 7F6E02A154D for ; Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:49:44 +0100 (CET) Received: (qmail 2311 invoked by uid 1001); 17 Mar 2010 18:49:36 -0000 Date: 17 Mar 2010 18:49:36 -0000 Message-ID: <20100317184936.2310.qmail@wcfields.tmseck.homedns.org> From: tmseck-lists@netcologne.de (Thomas-Martin Seck) To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <20100316183304.GF71601@hades.panopticon> X-Newsgroups: gmane.os.freebsd.devel.ports X-Attribution: tms Subject: Re: correct location for third party /var files X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:49:46 -0000 * Dmitry Marakasov [gmane.os.freebsd.devel.ports]: > * Eitan Adler (eitanadlerlist@gmail.com) wrote: > >> Are third party tools supposed to use /usr/local/var or /var ? > > /var, absolutely. Everything that uses /usr/local/var or, even worse, > /usr/local/${PORTNAME} should be fixed. I beg to differ, especially your absolute posturing, but take this as the opinion of an aging fart. When I started maintaining ports in 2004, the (or at least my) goal was to avoid absolute paths in pkg-plist like the plague, that is why I do not bother to use something /var/cache/squid or /var/log/squid instead of PREFIX/squid/{logs,cache}. There is IMHO nothing wrong with storing variable data in $PREFIX/portname/ as long as this is sensibly done. $PREFIX/portname/var or $PREFIX/var/portname on the other hand is usually just a sign of sloppy porting and should be fixed. Trying to separate static and variable data and scattering said data across filesystems just for the sake of it or for arcane aesthetic reasons is - IMO - not really helpful for the user. The most important point is that you should never deviate to much from the directory layout that the software authors have in mind: users might have a hard time finding out where a certain directory that is mentioned in the documentation is actually located when the software is installed via FreeBSD ports (my current case in point: mail/sympa5).