Re: /run and needing a --rundir for configure

[Eric Blake]

On 09/05/2013 01:31 PM, Doug Goldstein wrote:
> Given /run's adoption and rationale [1] and a number of autotools based
> projects that need to refer to their PID or other run-time data that
> typically appears in /var/run (e.g. libvirt). There should be a good
> standardized way to specify the path for the run-time data. Currently many
> use localstatedir + "/run", which results in PREFIX/var/run by default.
> Most distro build systems set localstatedir to /var, resulting in /var/run.
> However that is not the correct directory and its relying on the fact that
> popular distros are currently providing a symlink from /var/run to /run.
> The reality is that configure should add --rundir to allow Linux distros to
> set it to /run and for other platforms that have not adopted /run, they
> could continue to use /var/run.
> 
> Hopefully this makes sense but if you need more information or rationale
> I'll be glad to discuss this further.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> [1] http://lwn.net/Articles/436012/
> 

More precisely, I think this patch would be appropriate.  If it goes in,
then I will focus on getting autoconf 2.70 released with support for
--rundir.

Index: standards/make-stds.texi
===================================================================
RCS file: /sources/gnustandards/gnustandards/make-stds.texi,v
retrieving revision 1.64
diff -u -r1.64 make-stds.texi
--- standards/make-stds.texi    13 Jul 2012 17:00:17 -0000      1.64
+++ standards/make-stds.texi    5 Sep 2013 19:45:49 -0000
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 @cindex standards for makefiles

 @c Copyright 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001,
address@hidden 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
address@hidden 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2013 Free Software 
Foundation, Inc.
 @c
 @c Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
 @c under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3
@@ -518,6 +518,15 @@
 should normally be @file{/usr/local/var}, but write it as
 @file{$(prefix)/var}.
 (If you are using Autoconf, write it as @samp{@@localstatedir@@}.)
+
address@hidden rundir
+The directory for installing data files which the programs modify while
+they run, that pertain to one specific machine, and which do not need
+to persist longer than the execution of the program.  @file{$(rundir)}
+should default to @file{$(localstatedir)/run}, although having it as
+a separate variable allows distributions to favor the use of
address@hidden/run} instead of @file{/var/run} for distribution installs.
+(If you are using Autoconf 2.70, write it as @samp{@@rundir@@}.)
 @end table

 These variables specify the directory for installing certain specific


-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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