Re: statedir locations

[ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)]

Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org> skribis:

> ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès) writes:
>
>> Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org> skribis:
>>
>>> ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès) writes:
>>>
>>>> John Darrington <john@darrington.wattle.id.au> skribis:
>>>>
>>>>> It has come to my attention that guix packages (at least those with gnu build system)
>>>>> default their statedirs to directories under /nix/store/.  Recall that the statedirs (ie: 
>>>>> sharedstatedir localstatedir and runstatedir) are for installing data files *which the programs
>>>>> modify while they run* [1].   Obviously a program cannot modify anything under /nix/store
>>>>> I think we need to update the default configure flags.
>>>>
>>>> Yes.  We actually have a number of local modifications:
>>>>
>>>>   $ grep -e --localstatedir gnu/packages/*.scm | wc -l
>>>>   5
>>>>
>>>> I think we should change gnu-build-system.scm to pass
>>>> --localstatedir=/var, unless ‘configure-flags’ specify another setting.
>>>>
>>>> I’ll do that in ‘core-updates’.
>>>
>>> What about 'sharestatedir' and 'runstatedir'?
>>
>> ‘runstatedir’ is in the not-yet-released Autoconf, but otherwise, yeah,
>> they all deserve the same treatment.
>
> So there's a problem.  Lots of builds are now failing, because "make
> install" often tries to create /var or /com and does not have sufficient
> permissions to do so.

Indeed (notice that I’m reading mail in the wrong order.)

Ludo’.