Bug#406685: [Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#406685: initscripts: RAMRUN, RAMLOCK vars/opts are undocumented

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh]

On Sat, 13 Jan 2007, Paolo wrote:
> config, is a secondary point, main one is that RAMRUN - ie /var/run on 
> tmpfs - and perhaps others, doesn't look like an acceptable option in Etch 
> current, as too many pkgs don't expect volatile dirs under /var/run hence 
> fail on (re)boot.
> Respective maintainers seems quite reluctant to address that by hacking
> their init.d/ scripts. Case in point was clamav-daemon, which didn't start
> on boot, expecting /var/run/clamav/ to be already there. Same for virus-DB
> updater freshclam.

They are buggy.  They need to be fixed.  I would be happy to provide patches
and NMU if that's what the problem is.  OTOH, if the clamav-* maintainer
does not *want* to fix this bug because it is against what he believes is
right, then we shouldn't fight him, IMHO.  It goes straight to the CTTE in
that case.

> As for clamav-daemon bug report, bottom line here is, imo,  that such tmpfs 
> (RAM* opts) should be disabled till an agreement is made on who is supposed

This agreement was made the Debian way (massive thread on d-devel), and the
outcome is: packages are not allowed to assume anything will remain in
ephemeral trees, and */run, and /tmp are now considered ephemeral.

The reason was technical:  It is much simpler and safer to add the required
logic to each package's initscripts than to try for anything generic.

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh