Bug#806592: vdr: Fails to start without video directory

[Tobias Grimm]

Hello Paul!

What would be a better location for the recording directory?
/var/lib/video was especially chosen more than a decade ago to be FHS
conform (/video was used before). Maybe /var/lib/vdr/(video|recordings)
would be better?

On new installations root will be asked to create /var/lib/video. If the
admin doesn't do so, it is expected that he is creating/configuring a
video directory manually. I'm not sure if it would be wise to always
create /var/lib/video. As you noted, it could quickly run full. The common
use case is to have a special drive / LVM / NFS share or whatever for
recordings. This will always require the admin to manually mount/link
/var/lib/video or configure a different recording directory in 00-vdr.conf.

The upgrade situation is kinda difficult. The config files have completely
changed, multiple video directories (video.00/01...) are not supported
anymore by upstream and getting everything to work with systemd AND
SysVinit doesn't make things easier. At least for upgrades the admin is
expected to update some config options manually, which is noted in the NEWS.

I'm open to every suggestion to improve things as long as it doesn't
involve setting any config options from the maintainer scripts.

BR,

Tobias

On 29.11.2015 13:45, Paul Menzel wrote:

> Package: vdr
> Version: 2.2.0-5
> Severity: important
> 
> Dear Debian folks,
> 
> 
> `/var/lib/video` does not exist on my system and therefore VDR fails to
> start.
> 
> ```
> $ systemctl status vdr
> ● vdr.service - Video Disk Recorder
>    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/vdr.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
>    Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sa 2015-11-28 07:59:50 CET; 22min ago
>   Process: 1343 ExecStart=/usr/bin/vdr (code=exited, status=2)
>   Process: 1305 ExecStartPre=/bin/sh /usr/lib/vdr/merge-commands.sh reccmds (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
>   Process: 975 ExecStartPre=/bin/sh /usr/lib/vdr/merge-commands.sh commands (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
>  Main PID: 1343 (code=exited, status=2)
> 
> Nov 28 07:58:05 myhostname systemd[1]: Starting Video Disk Recorder...
> Nov 28 07:59:46 myhostname vdr[1343]: [1343] ERROR (tools.c,441): /var/lib/video: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden
> Nov 28 07:59:50 myhostname systemd[1]: vdr.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT
> Nov 28 07:59:50 myhostname systemd[1]: Failed to start Video Disk Recorder.
> Nov 28 07:59:50 myhostname systemd[1]: vdr.service: Unit entered failed state.
> Nov 28 07:59:50 myhostname systemd[1]: vdr.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
> Nov 28 07:59:50 myhostname vdr[1343]: vdr: can't access video directory /var/lib/video
> ```
> 
> Should the start script at least create that directory, so that VDR
> continues running. I understand that one could argue, that this is not
> desired, as the partition, `/var/lib/video` exists on, could run full.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Paul
> 
> 
> PS: I’ll contact the mailing list, why `/var/lib` is used to store
> videos. That fundamentally violates the FHS [1] in my opinion.
> 
> 
> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard
> -- System Information:
> Debian Release: stretch/sid
>   APT prefers unstable
>   APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
> Architecture: i386 (i686)
> 
> Kernel: Linux 3.19.0-trunk-686-pae (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
> Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
> Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
> Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
> 
> Versions of packages vdr depends on:
> ii  adduser                3.113+nmu3
> ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]  1.5.58
> ii  init-system-helpers    1.24
> ii  libc6                  2.19-22
> ii  libcap2                1:2.24-12
> ii  libfontconfig1         2.11.0-6.3
> ii  libfreetype6           2.6.1-0.1
> ii  libgcc1                1:5.2.1-25
> ii  libjpeg62-turbo        1:1.4.1-2
> ii  libstdc++6             5.2.1-25
> ii  libsystemd0            228-2
> 
> Versions of packages vdr recommends:
> ii  fonts-freefont-ttf  20120503-4
> ii  lirc                0.9.0~pre1-1.2
> ii  ttf-bitstream-vera  1.10-8
> 
> Versions of packages vdr suggests:
> pn  vdr-plugin-dvbsddevice  <none>
> 
> -- debconf information:
> * vdr/select_dvb_card: Terrestrial
>   vdr/create_video_dir: false
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> pkg-vdr-dvb-devel mailing list
> pkg-vdr-dvb-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org
> http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pkg-vdr-dvb-devel
> 


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