/tftpboot vs. /var/tftp vs. something else?

[Lubomir Kundrak]

Hi,

On Mon, 2007-11-12 at 19:46 -0500, Chuck Anderson wrote:
> TFTP is often used to store firmware images and configuration files 
> for embedded devices, and as a place for such devices to write crash 
> dumps, log files, etc.
> 
> FHS 2.3 is silent on where to put files served up by TFTP.  Currently, 
> we set the TFTP root to /tftpboot.  This seems suboptimal for a few 
> reasons:
> 
> 1. The root directory might be read-only on the TFTP server, so it 
> isn't a good place to put the TFTP root.

Why? The images are usually also read only.

> 2. The root directory might be too small to store lots of log files, 
> huge crash dumps, etc.

Well, if you use it for crash dumps, there are bind mounts and links
still.

> 3. It really makes no sense to have a separate top-level directory for 
> the TFTP service.  /tftpboot is a legacy location that should be 
> reconsidered.

It does in case tftpd doesn't chroot.

> 4. tftp"boot" doesn't fit all use cases.  It isn't used exclusively 
> during booting of these devices.

And lib is not just for libraries, bin is not for binaries, but also for
executable scripts, initctl which is not a device resides in dev, and
etc doesn't keep what's left, but just the config files and startup
scripts.

I would be more happy if we kept /tftpboot. Loads of documentation
assumes it, people remember it that way. The benefits are too small to
outweight the loses.

On the other side I have no idea what does FHS say about it.

-- 
Lubomir Kundrak (Red Hat Security Response Team)