[gentoo-dev] Re: Is /var/cache the right place for repositories?

[Duncan]

Michael Hampicke posted on Tue, 25 Dec 2012 10:09:15 +0100 as excerpted:

> Am 24.12.2012 17:09, schrieb Rick "Zero_Chaos" Farina:
>> On 12/24/2012 09:00 AM, Diego Elio Pettenò wrote:

>>> Not sure how /var/cache fits for binpkgs though, tbh.
>>
>> No sure how it doesn't...
>>
>> Binpackages are really essentially cache created by portage through
>> time-consuming I/O and calculation (compiling) and can easily be
>> regenerated locally.  Plus, you can delete all of this and the system
>> is still functional.
>
> Not that I am opposed to keep binpackages in /var/cache - but people on
> this thread have brought up lot's of reasons why for certain aspects not
> to keep certain data in certain places.

Also, consider what happens if gcc or the like breaks.  Normally those 
with FEATURES=binpkg can still revert to their last known working binpkg, 
and this has long been listed as one of the reasons people should 
consider enabling binpkgs.  But if it's gone due to "cache cleanup" and 
gcc is broken...

A system reinstall from binpkgs sure speeds things up if you fatfinger an 
rm --recursive or some such, as well.  Basically, you're installing a 
custom bindistro in that case, making PKGDIR more a binpkg repository 
than a simple cache of individual packages.  It is for this reason I keep 
my binpkgs on a dedicated partition, and back it up, something I do NOT 
do with the gentoo ebuild tree, the kernel tree, or ccache, which to me 
ARE caches, while my binpkg dir isn't.

But I set the vars myself so what the defaults are isn't a big deal, here.

-- 
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