On Sat, Jun 02, 2012 at 11:09:46AM +0700, Michel Alexandre Salim wrote:
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Hello,
I've just submitted a review request[1] for Nix[2], a purely functional package manager.
Nix uses the /nix directory by default for essential operations -- its package store, for instance, is located at /nix/store by default, and it's local state in /nix/var.
These can be overridden at compile time, however, doing so makes it impossible to use pre-built binaries[3] provided in Nix channels (repositories).
As such, it seems that this is a justifiable case for creating a new directory under root -- cf. the introduction of /run, as documented in Fedora 15's release notes[4]:
This change is compliant with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, which allows distributions to create new directories in the root hierarchy as long as there is careful consideration of the consequences.I posit that compatibility with a vast amount of pre-built binaries, and the reduced usefulness of the tool without this compatibility (anyone who has used MacPorts, with its lack of pre-built binaries, would sympathize).
Should I create an FPC ticket for this?
Yes, but unless the FPC is willing to abandon the FHS I think it will be a close or negative vote.
Also, there was talk about whether Fedora should allow alternate package managers (meaning system-wide package managers that work with formats that are not rpm ie: dpkg or apt-get that works with .debs [not the apt-get rpm port].) I do not remember what the decision was there.
Lastly, the release notes do not accurately reflect the reason that the FPC chose to allow /run.
-Toshio