From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Chris Marusich Subject: Re: The tricky case of "--localstatedir=/var" Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2016 00:06:25 -0800 Message-ID: <874md7yd4u.fsf@gmail.com> References: <20160216135729.GB13560@novena-choice-citizen.lan> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:53368) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aVx86-0003HK-Uc for guix-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 17 Feb 2016 03:06:39 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aVx81-0001Eh-6p for guix-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 17 Feb 2016 03:06:34 -0500 Received: from mail-pa0-x231.google.com ([2607:f8b0:400e:c03::231]:34603) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aVx80-0001EQ-Vp for guix-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 17 Feb 2016 03:06:29 -0500 Received: by mail-pa0-x231.google.com with SMTP id fy10so7209426pac.1 for ; Wed, 17 Feb 2016 00:06:28 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <20160216135729.GB13560@novena-choice-citizen.lan> (Jookia's message of "Wed, 17 Feb 2016 00:57:29 +1100") List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Jookia <166291@gmail.com> Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org Jookia <166291@gmail.com> writes: > Over the past month a few people (myself included) have been hit by the 'gotcha' > of not running ./configure with "--localstatedir=/var". It doesn't say this in > the documentation but I question whether not having it as /var is a sane > default. I'm sure this is somehow tied to the conventions of /usr/local. I'm not sure there is a single default that will work for everybody. In general, a value that is appropriate for one use case will not be appropriate for a different use case. For example, the README file in the root directory of Guix's git repository [1] explains that if you want to re-build and re-install Guix using a system that already runs Guix, it's important to explicitly set the localstatedir variable to an appropriate value so that the new Guix sees the existing items in the store. On GuixSD, I believe the appropriate value would be "/var". Similarly, the Guix manual also explains [2] that if you wish to have Guix and Nix share the same store, you must explicitly set the localstatedir variable to an appropriate value. According to the manual, if you're using Nix's defaults, then that's "/nix/var". No single default value will satisfy both of those use cases; somebody will always have to explicitly specify the localstatedir. Therefore, instead of worrying about what the "right" default should be, perhaps it makes more sense to focus on how the documentation can be improved. If setting the localstatedir is important, the manual should explain that. The manual already mentions localstatedir, as shown above, but perhaps the manual is not clear enough. People do seem to be tripping over it. With the aim of improving the documentation, then, I'll ask: what was your use case? Why did you need to set the localstatedir explicitly? Is there a place in the manual where, if information about the localstatedir had been present, you would have realized from the start that you needed to set it, and you would have understood what the appropriate value to use was? Best regards, Chris [1] README file: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/tree/README [2] Info node "(guix) Requirements": https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/html_node/Requirements.html