[gentoo-dev] Re: Moving our/portage stuff to var

[Duncan]

Ulrich Mueller posted on Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:43:56 +0100 as excerpted:

>>>>>> On Wed, 19 Dec 2012, Diego Elio Pettenò wrote:
>
>> On 19/12/2012 13:44, Marc Schiffbauer wrote:
>>> I would suggest /var/portage ...
>
>> Seriously, mine is going to be a huge veto here with as much power I
>> can put.
>
> Why? The portage tree is of central importance for Gentoo, so IMHO a
> second-level directory would be acceptable for it. Besides, it currently
> is in /usr/portage, so it wouldn't be new but would only move from /usr
> to /var.
>
>> There is a _reason_ why stuff is added to /var/lib instead of having
>
>> /var/postgres /var/mysql /var/foobar /var/wtf /var/wth /var/imtired
>
>> ...
>
> I don't understand how this is related to the discussion. None of the
> above have any relevance for Gentoo that would be comparable to Portage.

Seriously, people, we're talking about a user-level default, not 
something there's no user-level way to change.  A ...

>> huge veto here with as much power I can put

... seems rather strong for a simple default, for something already 
DESIGNED for the user to put wherever they want!


FWIW, here, my tree's fully resolved to /usr/src/portage, but:

PORTDIR=/p
DISTDIR=${PORTDIR}/src
PKGDIR=/m/pw

/p -> /usr/src/portage

/p because I wanted as short a path as possible.  DISTDIR is set inside 
it, but to a customized srcdir name as makes more sense to me as well.  
My layman toplevel is inside as well, as $PORTDIR/layman.  (Yes, rsync-
exclude is set appropriately too.)

/usr/src is a dedicated partition containing PORTDIR, the kernel git tree 
and a local automated kernel-patches dir (similar to /etc/portage/patches 
but for the kernel), and the system ccache.  Actually, it contains a 
second system ccache as well, for the 32-bit chroot that's the build-
image for my netbook.

PKGDIR, /m/pw, is its own dedicated partition, with /mnt being a symlink 
to /m (short paths), and pw abreviating pkg-workstation.  There's another 
dedicated partition, /m/nr/pn, that's the PKGDIR for my netbook's build-
image (nr indicating netbook root, pn indicating pkg-netbook).

The gentoo tree and overlays, along with DISTDIR, are common to both the 
workstation and the netbook, and directly net-downloadable, so keeping src 
aka DISTDIR and the layman tree inside PORTDIR, on the /usr/src 
partition, makes sense to me.  But I keep separate PKGDIRs in dedicated 
partitions so I can have backup partitions for them, thus keeping 
installable binpkgs for both the workstation and the netbook, even if the 
working partitions get fscked.


The point of all this being, these settings are DESIGNED to be set by the 
user, who can have an as crazy-for-others-but-makes-sense-to-the-user 
configuration as they want!

Based on that, yes, the defaults have some level of symbolic importance, 
but even if they're something like
/some/crazy/nth/level/weirdness/subdir/portage by default, it's *JUST* 
the defaults, and if users feel strongly about it at all, they can change 
them.  IMO there's thus no reason to feel so strongly that one issues a...

>>huge veto here with as much power I can put


In fact, it could be argued that...

/some/crazy/nth/level/weirdness/subdir/portage

... *should* be the default, precisely to MAKE that point, that it's just 
a default for something intended to be set by the user.

Not that /I'd/ argue for it, especially since the gentoo way is 
customizable configuration but sane "just works" defaults where possible 
and I'd hardly call that sane, but it /would/ make the point.


Anyway, yes, getting the default out of /usr/portage into /var somewhere 
seems reasonable, and if I were to choose, I'd choose 
/var/cache/portage as that seems to me to be the clearest labeled intent, 
but it's a default INTENDED to be set to something else, should a user 
feel strongly about it, and as such, the default really isn't that big of 
a deal.  Yes let's move it into /var, but /var/db/portage vs. 
/var/cache/portage vs. /var/portage ... if people have strong feelings 
about it, they'll move it anyway, so /whatever/ the default, even 
something as insane as the path suggested to make the point above, it's 
simply not worth having a coronary (or incinerating opposition with a 
flaming stare) over.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman