[RFC] /var versus /srv

[seth vidal]

On Fri, 2007-09-21 at 06:08 -0400, Alan Cox wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 21, 2007 at 11:48:48AM +0200, Nicolas Mailhot wrote:
> > And the FHS clearly states creating new /var roots is a no-go, so /var
> > is a dead-end for new protocol/serving needs (like bittorent)
> 
> And nobody cares because the FHS is broken
> 
> > As usual the FHS tries to catter to everyone by not closing the door
> > on existing non-streamlined practices. IMHO interested people @fedora
> 
> No. What happened is that the FHS put things to a vote. Unfortunately
> the FHS towards the end of its existance contained more random people who
> had no clue about distribution building and software management than distro
> people so the wrong side won.
> 
> The people who mattered and actually do know what they are doing therefore
> considered parts of the FHS silly and ignored them.
> 
> > /srv being: any variable data which primary purpose is being exposed
> > to other systems via a network interface (can include webapp variable
> > data)
> 
> That clashes with /home in many cases.
> 
> The right answer is to delete /srv (or obsolete it) and remove the silly
> statements about /var (which mostly exist to try and force the /srv
> stupidity into being)

As a sysadmin /srv is a useful thing - it's what most sysadmins do
anyway - create a top level path where they mount the large, local disks
and put all their data. So they know on every system if they hit /etc
and /srv with the backups they'll have what they should be worried
about. All admins may not call it /srv but they do something like
it: /fs, /local, /data, /srv

it's all the same result.

so while your argument for not using it in the distro is fine -the
reality is that this is what is actually done by sysadmins all over the
world.

-sv