Re: [gentoo-dev] Concerns about WIPE_TMP change

[Mark Loeser <halcy0n@gentoo.org>]

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Stefan de Konink <skinkie@xs4all.nl> said:
> How stupid anyone could be that stores anything in /tmp. I think it is a
> problem to change the default behavior of a system that in essence will
> result in data loss.

I think this might just be a communication problem.  You seem to be
contradicting yourself here by saying how someone could be stupid for
storing something, and then defending people that are doing something
you are admitting to be stupid and not logical.

> As pointed out by others you should not use /tmp to store data, my
> return question is then, why are the other ./tmp directories not wiped?
> If any ./tmp on a partition was 'kernel' governed I could agree that a
> semi-ramdisk would be gone upon reboot, or after an application was done
> running. But it is not.

Because according to the FHS (and common sense), files or directories in
/tmp should not be considered to be preserved.  /var/tmp on the other
hand is specifically for temporary files that should be preserved
between reboots.


> In any case my request would be to put a message with bells and beeps in
> the ebuild that cause the /etc/conf.d/bootmisc change announcing that by
> then the default option for /tmp is deletion on boot. To be consistent,
> also delete /var/tmp. If anyone thinks wiping /var/tmp is evil, please
> reconsider /tmp too. In my opinion WIPE_TMP should be in the same state
> as RC_PARALLEL_STARTUP. Unless anyone can make sure a user knows what he
> is doing, disable it.

Please refer to my explanation above as to why /var/tmp is different
from /tmp.

Should an elog statement been put into the ebuild...maybe.
I leave that up to the maintainer to decide what is important enough to
be logged, and they clearly thought this wasn't in this case.  But
bringing it up on this mailing list is atleast the correct place to get
a discussion going on what should be mentioned when we change default
configurations if that is your intention.

Thanks,

-- 
Mark Loeser
email         -   halcy0n AT gentoo DOT org
email         -   mark AT halcy0n DOT com
web           -   http://www.halcy0n.com

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