On Tue, May 03, 2016 at 02:16:55PM -0400, Steve Litt wrote:
> On Tue, 3 May 2016 13:00:39 +0100
> KatolaZ <katolaz@???> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, May 03, 2016 at 06:32:41AM -0500, Jim Murphy wrote:
> >
> > [cut]
> >
> > >
> > > I know this is in the very early stages and where things go is
> > > still open to discussion, but consider this.
> > >
> > > UNIX and lookalikes have been able to boot into single user mode
> > > with a small root filesystem without the need for /usr, /var or ...
> > > There are still admins that have split any number of these
> > > directories into their own filesystems for various reasons. I guess
> > > you can call these use-cases. By placing the init systems in /var
> > > we again remove another choice for admins/users. If we are about
> > > choice, then /var may not be the best place to put inits.
> > >
> > > Something to consider and discuss, I hope.
> > >
> >
> > I definitely agree with you Jim, and this is certainly one aspect to
> > be taken into account seriously. We should strive to allow the maximum
> > flexibility in choosing an init system, ensuring that the set of
> > constraints remains as small as possible.
>
> Interesting point. Perhaps that's why Daniel J Bernstein (djb) put
> the /service directory directly off the root. He also put his
> executables in, IIRC, /command directly off the root. I always thought
> he was crazy, but Jim's point brings some sense to what djb did.
>
> One distro I saw (perhaps Debian) put the /service directory
> under /etc. At the time I thought the packager was psychotic, but Jim's
> point makes me wonder if the real truth is I was a little shortsighted.

There's a small number of directories that are supposed to be on the
root filesystem, or otherwise available during boot. I believe /etc
and /bin are two of these.

/usr is not. I suspect /var isn't either.

init is supposed to be able to read /etc/fstab to find the others.
That's why /etc has to be on the root filesystem.

So it is available for init-time configuration files.

-- hendrik

>
> Perhaps LSB should add a directory called /mustnotbemountpoint directly
> off the root, for stuff that must be available immediately upon
> mounting the root partition for the first time.

There are already several suuch directories.

-- hendrik