From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Ricardo Wurmus Subject: Re: Stateful system directories Date: Fri, 18 Oct 2019 16:17:14 +0200 Message-ID: <871rvakuj9.fsf@elephly.net> References: <20191018073501.GB1224@E5400> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:59740) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1iLT4G-0003Sx-Ed for guix-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Oct 2019 10:17:26 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1iLT4F-0002NZ-8g for guix-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Oct 2019 10:17:24 -0400 Received: from sender4-of-o51.zoho.com ([136.143.188.51]:21104) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1iLT4E-0002NJ-RC for guix-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Oct 2019 10:17:23 -0400 In-reply-to: <20191018073501.GB1224@E5400> 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: Efraim Flashner Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org Efraim Flashner writes: > On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 05:08:20AM +0200, Ricardo Wurmus wrote: >> >> Kei Kebreau writes: >> >> > Ricardo Wurmus writes: >> > >> >> Kei Kebreau writes: >> >> > >> >> >> >> Have you tried removing /var/lib/gdm and the contents of your user >> >> account=E2=80=99s .local/share/gnome* directories? >> > > >> >> ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/application_state is a common problem. It >> contains some state that different versions of GNOME seem to be choking >> on. There are some other files like ~/.cache/gnome* that might affect >> GNOME and prevent starting after upgrades. It=E2=80=99s frustrating. >> >> /var/lib/gdm is the home directory of the gdm account, and it too can >> accumulate state. In my opinion /var/lib/gdm should always be recreated >> on every boot. >> > > 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)) Ah, neat. A bit heavy-handed, of course, but neat :) > 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? I think there=E2=80=99s no compelling reason to keep /var/lib/gdm state acr= oss reboots. When this goes wrong it=E2=80=99s very painful, and that=E2=80=99= s much more significant than any savings (e.g. in startup times) that it might bring us. So here=E2=80=99s my vote for letting the gdm service recreate its home directory unconditionally, perhaps with a toggle to disable this behaviour (e.g. when someone wants to use a different directory and somehow alter GDM behaviour this way). -- Ricardo