On Tue, May 23, 2000 at 09:15:30AM +1000, David Burren wrote:
> /var is meant to be state local to this host.  Dynamic files that change
> more often than the rest of /, amongst other characteristics.

From hier:
/var/      multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files
> 
> My understanding is that /var/db is meant to be primarily databases that
> are preserved across reboots (as distinct from /var/run).  E.g. dhcpd
> state files.
> Am I mistaken?

Ok, but this is not critical piece of information.

> 
> 
> Where else would you store this data?  Under /usr?  Keep in mind that
> this is often (ok, ok, so that's a relative term) NFS-shared between a
> cluster of machines.  If the data reflects the the contents of /usr,
> then somewhere under /usr sounds very appropriate.  Otherwise /var
> (whether it's part of / or not) has historically been a sensible
> location.
> 
> In any case, relying on /var to _only_ have throwaway data is a flawed
> policy that will bite you (or someone else) sooner or later.  I guess it
> boils down to a question of how much pain you're willing to go through
> if/when you have to go to backups.  If you're going to exclude data from
> your backups, be sure you don't do it with too broad a cut (sure,
> filesystem-level dumps may make your choice harder, but symlinks are
> useful).

I expect to get back a usefull system by restoring anything but /var from
backups (this is how I understand "temporary, transient").
The only think that prevent me from doing this rigth now is the package
database.

--
Manuel Bouyer, LIP6, Universite Paris VI.           Manuel.Bouyer@lip6.fr
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