From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Efraim Flashner Subject: Re: Stateful system directories Date: Sun, 20 Oct 2019 12:03:56 +0300 Message-ID: <20191020090356.GA2275@E5400> References: <20191018073501.GB1224@E5400> <87ftjosas6.fsf@gnu.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha512; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="PNTmBPCT7hxwcZjr" Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:57058) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1iM785-00005V-Md for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 20 Oct 2019 05:04:02 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1iM784-00048k-IG for guix-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 20 Oct 2019 05:04:01 -0400 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <87ftjosas6.fsf@gnu.org> 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" To: Ludovic =?utf-8?Q?Court=C3=A8s?= Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org --PNTmBPCT7hxwcZjr Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Sat, Oct 19, 2019 at 11:08:57PM +0200, Ludovic Court=C3=A8s wrote: > Hello Efraim, >=20 > Efraim Flashner skribis: >=20 > > Ignoring the directories in users' home directories, /var/lib/gdm has > > been a source of pain on GNOME upgrades, and we still have some problems > > with /var/cache/fontconfig and I believe there is something else with > > permissions if you switch between ntp and openntpd. I actually have the > > following snippet in my OS-config: > > > > ;; This directory shouldn't exist > > (file-system > > (device "none") > > (mount-point "/var/cache/fontconfig") > > (type "tmpfs") > > (flags '(read-only)) > > (check? #f)) >=20 > I think that would work, or we could even make it a writable tmpfs? I got angry with it and wanted to see if I could generate any error messages. :) So far nothing. Of course there isn't a compelling reason to really make it read-only if we recreate it each time, and it should cut down on bugs for other directories. >=20 > (Somehow, I do have /var/cache/fontconfig, but never hard any problems > with it. It hasn=E2=80=99t been written to in months, and it=E2=80=99s o= nly writable by > root anyway. Does that mean that people run into problem when they run > GUIs as root?) I have it too, not sure from what. I'm guessing some of the packages which have fontconfig as an input get a dbus-something to create the directory if it's missing. >=20 > > While we work on fixing these does it make sense to modify some of these > > services to unconditionally recreate their home directories on > > boot/activation? >=20 > Like /var/lib/gdm? Maybe. Or maybe =E2=80=98gdm-service-type=E2=80=99 c= ould extend > =E2=80=98file-system-service-type=E2=80=99 with a tmpfs for /var/lib/gdm? >=20 Sounds like a good idea. Would that also cause the directory to be removed if gdm is removed? It should create a tmpfs and mount it over an existing /var/lib/gdm, right? > I suppose that might increase startup time a bit since it=E2=80=99d be > rebuilding its cache every time. Perhaps we=E2=80=99d also lose bits of = state, > no? The increase in startup time should be negligible, and according to rekado, who seems to run into GDM issues the most, removing /var/lib/gdm is one of the first steps when upgrading gnome or debugging gdm issues. >=20 > Thanks, > Ludo=E2=80=99. --=20 Efraim Flashner =D7=90=D7=A4=D7=A8=D7=99=D7=9D = =D7=A4=D7=9C=D7=A9=D7=A0=D7=A8 GPG key =3D A28B F40C 3E55 1372 662D 14F7 41AA E7DC CA3D 8351 Confidentiality cannot be guaranteed on emails sent or received unencrypted --PNTmBPCT7hxwcZjr Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIzBAABCgAdFiEEoov0DD5VE3JmLRT3Qarn3Mo9g1EFAl2sIvwACgkQQarn3Mo9 g1Hx/Q/+LjmnIjs5fN4X2Dn5XJbliY96NTSc4yG4HGDeHV+V0NHI8VWT4kTWHZab ju9ChUnis1rt8EIZqYIfa4K4T9jzi/6J8fA+3dreyIhrY4vSMK5yZJ6cwp5DGNym RRdGn/u4DxIWrbQx9d0NMFmwON9ZHn7xqUq9JTHJYwN/B0kfCVGQikvXD4Ln7/VM 380zhADRVfRdGrBD5xHvsjFSH+YJo3YHWzdIjFbd2S/wYbCGJrcm6h2xlg5MzdAV FrTHH2YXdlwJZaXGQ6WohGgzN3FJ02sLchqBy+5+xxsPG9tIy75AORuORN+1kUVk hS6QEyrgWGpuf/r6lnOv/cS7NDYD7OguclsQeHd/3EOzhOC/XTqZofttEYtwUoGG Erq/mqa7VR9wmYuq8O2mJxCTxzTiHCnPXBxLVs9SB8epL1OPFnzdGGx7uCTFxU6b UsyAyN6+iQ7+otDnUVHH5voWbFnyQOazC8t9jMaj9n28zMTaAf0dsIjBF0mfcm3Q ZRD55Km0J7ndXJ0K6fDsT+HgKRR4pu1xD0DCmO7OR+MUFBibNi7TPNAnVWiAvOQL +vWxd6QNsGUMgMNPatZ/0MZscrW2wzbs+PuSQ/r90L7iqod5lo7snZTJIlgjhiZE J34sjM4q2l78bK2A3gesoIHvYkSOHXGS9xgVguobXitrhSJyhMk= =1l3D -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --PNTmBPCT7hxwcZjr--