[Debconf-devel] Bug#636621: Re. debconf (purging /var/cache/debconf)

[Edward Allcutt]

limit package debconf
severity 636621 minor
thanks

Quoting fhs-2.3

 	/var/cache is intended for cached data from applications. Such data is
 	locally generated as a result of time-consuming I/O or calculation. The
 	application must be able to regenerate or restore the data. Unlike
 	/var/spool, the cached files can be deleted without data loss. The data
 	must remain valid between invocations of the application and rebooting
 	the system.

 	Files located under /var/cache may be expired in an application specific
 	manner, by the system administrator, or both. The application must always
 	be able to recover from manual deletion of these files (generally because
 	of a disk space shortage). No other requirements are made on the data
 	format of the cache directories.

The accepted interpretation of the FHS distinguishes normal files from
directories. In particular it is not unusual for directories under /var/cache
to be shipped by a package and owned by a user or group other than root. Such
directories cannot by design be recreated on demand.

This is not a policy violation. Downgrading accordingly but leaving open as
Joey may want to work around this anyway since debconf is one of the packages
that is in a position to handle this.

-- 
Edward Allcutt