Re: F36 Change: Authselect: Move State Files to /etc (Self-Contained Change proposal)

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On Wed, Jan 19, 2022 at 3:04 AM Petr Pisar <ppisar@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> V Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 12:32:52PM -0500, Ben Cotton napsal(a):
> > Since /var should contain only files that can be safely removed,
>
> While I agree with your change, this statement is false. /var is for any files
> which are variable. Files which can be safely removed belong to /var/tmp and
> /var/cache.

Either /etc or /var should contain files that can be safely removed,
i.e. the system or application shouldn't break. Anything needing some
sort of base state information to function at all, needs to put that
in /usr, and customization/modification results in it being written to
/etc (configuration) or /var (runtime variable state information).

So if the files in question being moved were to be deleted, authselect
needs to handle that potential regardless of whether the state
information is in /etc or /var.

>From FHS 5.8.1 about /var/lib
"State information is generally used to preserve the condition of an
application (or a group of inter-related applications) between
invocations and between different instances of the same application."

If anything is more likely to get wiped in a factory/system reset, I
think it's /etc. I expect upon configuration information being reset,
that by extension the variable state information is rendered
unreliable or useless. Conversely, upon wiping a program's /var/lib
information, the configuration information in /etc is not inherently
invalid. I don't see much information in the FHS about the expected
behavior or consequences of wiping either location. But I think as a
distribution we can have the opinion the programs that face plant upon
finding empty /etc or /var/lib still should have the ability to
self-configure from /usr - be it a built-in process or some upstream
default /usr/etc configuration or base state information in /usr/var -
customization of either means populating the proper /etc or /var/lib

FHS 3.7 is pretty clear that /etc is for configuration information, no
binaries. I'm not completely sure I agree that state information is
disallowed in /etc, although I think the intent of the FHS here is so
that users can ostensibly reset a program's persistent state by wiping
the program's /var/lib information, which wouldn't alter its
configuration. If it's possible such a scenario confuses the program,
it really needs to be better prepared for this potential.

-- 
Chris Murphy
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