Re: libexecdir=/usr/sbin ?

["Gerrit P. Haase" <gerrit at familiehaase dot de>]

James R. Phillips wrote:

> All,
>
> The packaging instructions at http://cygwin.com/setup.html#package_contents
> indicate
>
> [quote]
> The package is configured using (at a minimum) the following paths: 
> [..snip..]
>   --libexecdir=/usr/sbin
> [..snip..]
> [/quote]
>
> OK, this seems wrong to me.  GNU autoconf defines libexecdir as a directory for
> binaries that are called by programs, and not by users.  It defaults to
> /usr/sbin, but that is a violation of fhs.  Per fhs, /usr/sbin is for
> nonessential administrative utilities, i.e. it is not for normal users.
>
> The current fhs indicates /usr/lib is the right place for libexecdir:
>
> [quote]
> 4.7.1. Purpose
>
> /usr/lib includes object files, libraries, and internal binaries that are not
> intended to be executed directly by users or shell scripts.
>
> Applications may use a single subdirectory under /usr/lib. If an application
> uses a subdirectory, all architecture-dependent data exclusively used by the
> application must be placed within that subdirectory.
> [/quote]
>
> Search of the cygwin-apps archives reveals no discussion of this issue, but
> does show some packagers are using libexecdir=/usr/lib instead of /usr/sbin.
>
> So three questions:
>
> (1) Wouldn't /usr/lib be preferred ?
> (2) If it is preferred, why don't we update our docs?
> (3) If it isn't preferred, is it acceptable?  It seems some are using it.

(1) /usr/lib/package, yes.  Or maybe /usr/share/package.
(2) SHTDI
(3) I use it for GCC since I'm maintainer and it was /usr/lib/gcc before
    I was maintainer.  In recent versions GCC switched to use two
    direcories, /usr/lib/gcc for runtime libraries, /usr/share/gcc for
    executables.

Dunno who wrote the docs... wonder why autoconf has this wrong.


Gerrit
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