From: Bron Gondwana <brong@fastmail.fm>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:58:00 GMT
Subject: Re: Why /var/cache/git?
Message-ID: <20101026205800.GA6544@brong.net>
In-Reply-To: <20101026152218.3931.qmail@d862ae2b10e11a.315fe32.mid.smarden.org>

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 03:22:18PM +0000, Gerrit Pape wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 09:21:39AM -0400, Drew Northup wrote:
> > On Tue, 2010-10-26 at 12:22 +1100, Bron Gondwana wrote:
> > > I have no problem with /var/git - it's /var/cache/git that worries
> > > me, since the FHS quite clearly says that blowing away /var/cache/*
> > > is not a problem.  It makes sense to back up /var/lib/ on any machine,
> > > since that's somewhere that contains application data.  We already
> > > back up a few things from /var/lib (like /var/lib/svn for example,
> > > at least until we finish this switchover!)
> > 
> > Bron,
> > Doing a 'git grep "/var"' on the git sources and then searching that
> > output for "cache" turns up nothing. I think you'd best bring this up
> > with the Debian package maintainer. Debian is well known for thinking it
> > knows better than the original authors where stuff should be--and that's
> > why I don't run Debian as a server (too much time spent transliterating
> > paths just to make stuff work properly--when I'm lucky; it makes an
> > excellent desktop for beginners).
> 
> Hi, it's also not my preference, but Debian adheres to the FHS.
> Unfortunately /var/git is not allowed by the FHS, so a different
> location must be chosen for Debian.  I chose /var/cache/git/, and
> suggested to populate that directory with symlinks to the repositories
> that should be available through git-daemon or gitweb, see
> http://bugs.debian.org/483788

Maybe you'd better read the FHS again to double check that you're
adhering.

http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#VARCACHEAPPLICATIONCACHEDATA

Purpose:

  /var/cache is intended for cached data from applications. 
  Such data is locally generated as a result of time-consuming 
  I/O or calculation. The application must be able to regenerate 
  or restore the data. 

I fail to see how git can regenerate the symlinks...

Bron.