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Re: libexecdir=/usr/sbin ?
- From: Igor Pechtchanski <pechtcha at cs dot nyu dot edu>
- To: "James R. Phillips" <antiskid56-cygwin at yahoo dot com>
- Cc: cygwin-apps at cygwin dot com
- Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 12:11:14 -0400 (EDT)
- Subject: Re: libexecdir=/usr/sbin ?
- References: <20050702154022.7830.qmail@web31501.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
- Reply-to: cygwin-apps at cygwin dot com
On Sat, 2 Jul 2005, James R. Phillips wrote:
> All,
>
> The packaging instructions at
> http://cygwin.com/setup.html#package_contents indicate
>
> [quote]
> The package is configured using (at a minimum) the following paths:
> [..snip..]
> --libexecdir=/usr/sbin
> [..snip..]
> [/quote]
>
> OK, this seems wrong to me. GNU autoconf defines libexecdir as a
> directory for binaries that are called by programs, and not by users.
> It defaults to /usr/sbin, but that is a violation of fhs. Per fhs,
> /usr/sbin is for nonessential administrative utilities, i.e. it is not
> for normal users.
I believe you're right. Cygwin already uses /usr/sbin for things that
normally go into /sbin on Linux (e.g., the service daemons).
> The current fhs indicates /usr/lib is the right place for libexecdir:
>
> [quote]
> 4.7.1. Purpose
>
> /usr/lib includes object files, libraries, and internal binaries that
> are not intended to be executed directly by users or shell scripts.
>
> Applications may use a single subdirectory under /usr/lib. If an
> application uses a subdirectory, all architecture-dependent data
> exclusively used by the application must be placed within that
> subdirectory.
> [/quote]
>
> Search of the cygwin-apps archives reveals no discussion of this issue,
> but does show some packagers are using libexecdir=/usr/lib instead of
> /usr/sbin.
>
> So three questions:
>
> (1) Wouldn't /usr/lib be preferred ?
I'm not sure how the configure options relate to the actual install
directory, but program-specific supplemental executables should go into
/usr/lib/<progname>, not just /usr/lib (i.e., the second option in your
quote).
> (2) If it is preferred, why don't we update our docs?
Whether it is preferred is for CGF and Corinna to decide. The answer to
your question, however, is <http://cygwin.com/acronyms/#SHTDI>. You could
submit a patch -- the web pages are in CVS (in the /cvs/cygwin directory).
> (3) If it isn't preferred, is it acceptable? It seems some are using it.
Definitely acceptable.
Igor
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