[fhs-discuss] user-specific directories in /run

[Ingo Schwarze]

Hi Jeff,

Jeff Licquia wrote on Tue, May 24, 2011 at 01:23:11PM -0400:

> So, we should specify /run in the FHS and leave /run/user as an 
> implementation detail for the XDG spec.
> 
> Does that sound about right?

As long as /run is specified as optional (as opposed to required),
that sounds fine.

There are systems out there being very careful not to start any
long-running userland processes, and even more so none requiring /run,
before mounting local file systems, when booting into multi-user mode.

For example, before mounting /var, OpenBSD does nothing but:
 - configure concatenated disk devices (if any)
 - configure RAID devices (if any)
 - enable swap devices
 - fsck local file systems

On such a system, there is no benefit in having /run outside /var,
and in fact, /run fits the definition of /var ("variable data files")
very well.

Yours,
  Ingo