On Thu, Dec 23, 2004 at 01:21:14AM +0800, Jeff Pitman wrote: > On Thursday 23 December 2004 00:43, Toshio Kuratomi wrote: > > If you have set up root to do something nonstandard like running > > python in optimized byte comilation mode is the onus also on you to > > create the pyos so you can create tripwire hashes? (Or set /usr ro > > or [untested] an SELinux context to keep pyo's from being written?) > > rpmlint comes to mind as "something nonstandard". If you so happen to > run it has root, of course. To truly be FHS-compliant, yes, the burden > is on an integrator or user to keep Python from writing to /usr. From > FHS v2.3: The non-standard was setting root to create optimized byte compiled files. If root isn't configured to do that, python won't attempt to create optimized byte compiled files. > """ > /usr is the second major section of the filesystem. /usr is shareable, > read-only data. That means that /usr should be shareable between > various FHS-compliant hosts and must not be written to. Any information > that is host-specific or varies with time is stored elsewhere. > """ > So the letter specifies that python should not write to /usr. OTOH, the reason given is so /usr can be shared, read-only data. Since python doesn't care if it writes the byte compiled files (and will run fine if it doesn't create them), I claim it's not a violation of the spirit of the FHS. > Technically pyo, when auto-generated by Python during execution, should > be written under /var. One could then create a system to allow > user-executed pythons to generate pyo for each other based on group > permissions. This would be especially cool if pyo actually provided a > significant optimization besides a minor startup boost. > Conceptually, pyc/pyo files aren't /var fodder. Maybe they belong in /srv. (They aren't cache files like /var/man/catman... they're on the fly compiled executables/libraries.) I can foresee potential security issues with pyo's generated from user-python instances being shared with other people on the system. These aren't just data files, they're exectuable content. This might be solvable but it has a lot of implications. > Since Python is cross-platform, moving things around like that would be > too platform specific and most likely rejected. Interestingly enough a > related RFE was filed a few years back: > http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=588756&group_id=5470&atid=355470 > Aye! There's the rub! > So, to %ghost or not to %ghost, that is the question! > I favor ghosting. But I don't run Tripwire.... -Toshio
