Subject: Re: /var/cron -> /etc/cron
To: Simon Burge <simonb@telstra.com.au>
From: Curt Sampson <cjs@cynic.net>
List: current-users
Date: 04/10/1999 16:04:08
On Fri, 9 Apr 1999, Simon Burge wrote:

> > I really don't see the advantage of that over a symlink.
> 
> The symlink means that half the time there has to be some representation
> of the data in a place that you don't want it.

It seems to me that you have that anyway; you have either a config
file in /etc stating where cron stuff lives, or a symlink in /etc
stating where cron stuff lives.

(As an alternative, I suppose you could specify the location with
an option to cron at boot time, but then crontab has to communicate
with cron to find out where all this is, and it won't work if cron's
not running.)

Personally, I think that this stuff about config files is all
getting quite complex, and I don't see that it's worth the kind of
effort that would have to put in to implement it and implementing
an upgrade system for the install for it. (With my original proposal,
the upgrade is as simple as `ln -s ../var/cron /etc/cron'. If it
fails, you're already on a new-type system, if not, you're upgraded.)

And still nobody on the `don't move it' side has put forth a more
general study of where things should go in the filesystem, as those
on the `please move it' side have.

cjs
-- 
Curt Sampson  <cjs@cynic.net>   604 801 5335   De gustibus, aut bene aut nihil.
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