[Mageia-dev] /run vs /var/run in configuration files

[Guillaume Rousse]

Le 11/09/2012 13:44, Colin Guthrie a écrit :
> 'Twas brillig, and Guillaume Rousse at 11/09/12 11:47 did gyre and gimble:
>> Le 11/09/2012 12:23, Sander Lepik a écrit :
>>> 11.09.2012 13:15, Guillaume Rousse kirjutas:
>>>> [...]
>>>>
>>>> The /run - /var/run merge (/usrmove) is supposed to make the change
>>>> transparent for applications. Manually converting applications to
>>>> explicitely refers to the new location doesn't change its usefulness.
>>>>
>>> Well, if your system can't mount /var for some reason then keeping
>>> things on /run might make recovery easier.
>
>> Then we probably should not refer to systemd directory as
>> /usr/lib/systemd, but as /lib/systemd for exactly the same reason.
>
> I don't really see the comparison here.
The point was: if the canonical path for /usr/lib|/lib directory (which 
is actually the same) if the longuest one, why should the canonical path 
for the /var/run|/run directory be the shortest one ?

> systemd is build to use /usr/lib/systemd these days, so it's technically
> incorrect to refer to it as anything else (of course technically
> incorrect != practically incorrect!)
>
>> Also, the usefulness of an available /run when /var is quite discutable,
>> whereas its main purpose is to store pid files for backgroud processes,
>> most of them using /var/lib for storing their data.
>
> Well, not just pid files. It also stores socket files which are critical
> for IPC and such like and is an important bridge between initrd and the
> real rootfs.
>
> Personally I'm more in favour of using /run directly and adding lint
> rules that cause a build failure if files are packaged in either
> /var/run or /run.
Shipping /var/run or /run files/directory is a different issues, and is 
rather related to tmpfs conversion.

However, a distinct lint rule could be to disallow the creation of 
/var/run subdirectories in tmpfiles.d configuration files, or to use 
/var/run pathes for PID files in systemd unit configuration files, if 
/run is to be preferred.

> If nothing else it's marginally more efficient to use /run. No spinning
> media stat required to dereference the index. In extreme cases, it will
> help extend battery life. The benefits are tiny I'm sure, but it does
> depend on context/setup and if there is no other tangible reasons, maybe
> even this small advantage is enough to sway in one direction rather than
> the other!
Well, I'm not really impressed by potential perf issues, especially with 
no backing benchmarks. I'm rather concerned about ease of maintainance, 
and consistency between spec files.

Anyway, I just found out than /usr/lib and /run are the actual 
directory, with /lib and /var/run the symlinks. Which makes an argument 
of favor of considering the first one as canonical.

-- 
BOFH excuse #182:

endothermal recalibration