Tim wrote:
Bruno Wolff III:
>> /var/run is now a tmpfs so data there will be lost at each reboot.
Sam Varshavchik:
> Splendid. Aside from the fact that inn's startup script does not get invoked
> correctly by initscripts, if you do invoke it correctly you also discover
> that it expects /var/run/news to be there, otherwise it bombs.
Hmm, is it right or wrong for *anything* to expect the contents
of /var/run to remain after a reboot?
There is a benefit to cleaning out the lock files, but there is a definite
problem to cleaning out everything, since the directory structure is needed to
support the lockfiles. Having the program create the structure is possible, but:
- it moves complexity from the install to the program
- it means more code needs to be added to check that the app is actually
installed at all
- it is one more distribution sensitive thing to add to config
Personal opinion: if shutdown saved the directory structure but not the
lockfiles, and startup repopulated /var/run when it was created, then
maintainers wouldn't have to be hacking multiple applications to add code which
seems not to be needed in some/most/all other distributions.
Someone obviously didn't like the "least work" approach.
I would have expected /var/run should be volatile, like /tmp.
/tmp isn't volatile. At least not in the sense that everything is removed over
every boot. At least not in Fedora <15, haven't looked to see if a reboot loses
all work in progress there.
--
Bill Davidsen <davidsen(a)tmr.com>
"We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked." - from Slashdot