[Dovecot] Default dirs in ./configure?
Hi! I try to build a new 1.1.7 installation. Since I'm not a large sysadmin, just my own private mail server admin, I just wonder why the sysconf and state dirs defaults to $prefix? Maybe I'm old-school, but isn't /etc and /var, respectively, a better default than /usr/local? Should require two new variables in the configure script, though.
(and yes, I know I set them with --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --sharedstatestatedir=/var )
/Peter
Peter Lindgren http://www.norrskenkonsult.com
Isn't /usr/local/ the default to prevent collisions with dist. provided files?
/yosh
Peter Lindgren skrev:
Hi! I try to build a new 1.1.7 installation. Since I'm not a large sysadmin, just my own private mail server admin, I just wonder why the sysconf and state dirs defaults to $prefix? Maybe I'm old-school, but isn't /etc and /var, respectively, a better default than /usr/local? Should require two new variables in the configure script, though.
(and yes, I know I set them with --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --sharedstatestatedir=/var )
/Peter
Johan 'yosh' Marklund skrev:
Isn't /usr/local/ the default to prevent collisions with dist. provided files?
The binaries defaults to /usr/local, and distro's binaries defaults to /usr?
Anyway, the config and state directories shouldn't matter if they are the same, right?
/Peter
Peter Lindgren http://www.norrskenkonsult.com
On Sat, Jan 3, 2009 at 6:49 PM, Johan 'yosh' Marklund yosh@yosh.se wrote:
Isn't /usr/local/ the default to prevent collisions with dist. provided files?
Yes, basically.
On Jan 3, 2009, at 9:18 PM, Peter Lindgren wrote:
I try to build a new 1.1.7 installation. Since I'm not a large
sysadmin, just my own private mail server admin, I just wonder why
the sysconf and state dirs defaults to $prefix? Maybe I'm old- school, but isn't /etc and /var, respectively, a better default
than /usr/local? Should require two new variables in the configure
script, though.
I think it's pretty much a standard to place all the files under
$prefix by default. It's also useful in some cases. For example I
don't have root access to the server where my mails are located, so I
just build Dovecot (and many other software) with --prefix=$HOME and
everything works nicely.
Timo wrote:
I think it's pretty much a standard to place all the files under $prefix by default. It's also useful in some cases. For example I don't have root access to the server where my mails are located, so I just build Dovecot (and many other software) with --prefix=$HOME and everything works nicely.
Yes, my production servers are configured like this.
Not a big issue, but I always dislikes the additional "dovecot" subdirs if dovecot is configured that way. Although the additional subdirs are unusual (compared with most other software products), I can see that these subdirs are useful for configurations like --prefix=/usr/local or --prefix=/usr.
But within a special account and using --prefix=$HOME these are superfluous:
$ find -name dovecot
./include/dovecot
./libexec/dovecot
./lib/dovecot
./share/doc/dovecot
./bin/dovecotI prefer (in this case!): ./include ./libexec ./lib ./share/doc ./bin
It would be great if I could suppress these additional "dovecot" subdirs during configure with something like --without-dovecot-subdirs.
Ok, minor issue but as the subject came up...
Regards, Heiko.
Heiko Schlichting Freie Universität Berlin heiko@CIS.FU-Berlin.DE Zentraleinrichtung für Datenverarbeitung (ZEDAT) Telefon +49 30 838-54327 Fabeckstraße 32 Telefax +49 30 838454327 14195 Berlin
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On Sun, 4 Jan 2009, Peter Lindgren wrote:
my own private mail server admin, I just wonder why the sysconf and state dirs defaults to $prefix? Maybe I'm old-school, but isn't /etc and /var,
Points of view vary. As others already said, /etc and /var are vender places, but some vendors say no 'var' on /usr and provide /var/local, even /etc/local for the same reason.
I think there was something: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard
/usr/local is a bit obsolete and replaced by /opt in conjunction with /etc/opt and /var/opt.
/usr/local is to replicate plain /etc /bin /sbin structure, but some vendors deny "var" contents there, because /usr might be mounted read only.
Bye,
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participants (6)
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Heiko Schlichting
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Johan 'yosh' Marklund
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Neil
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Peter Lindgren
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Steffen Kaiser
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Timo Sirainen