Re: [jamboost] Search paths for configuration files

From: Michael Stevens (m-stevens_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-02-10 12:29:17

On Thursday 10 February 2005 08:27, Vladimir Prus wrote:
> On Wednesday 09 February 2005 19:43, David Abrahams wrote:
> > On linux we search /etc for the site-config.jam. Doesn't something
> > under /usr/local (maybe /usr/local/etc) seem like it should be
> > searched too?
>
> I don't think so:
> http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#THEUSRHIERARCHY
> says:
>
> /usr is the second major section of the filesystem. /usr is shareable,
> read-only data. That means that /usr should be shareable between various
> FHS-compliant hosts and must not be written to. Any information that is
> host-specific or varies with time is stored elsewhere.
>
> So, /usr is not for any configuration files at all.
>
> > On all systems we search $BOOST_BUILD_PATH. But the build system may
> > not be installed in $BOOST_BUILD_PATH (because its location is
> > specified by boost-build.jam). Shouldn't we look in the build system
> > directory first?

I think the issue is complicated by the fact the the file is called 
"site-config.jam" and not "host-config.jam". If the config was for a specific 
host then "/etc" would be OK. For a site config "/etc" is definitely wrong!

With this in mind my prefered location from the FHS would be
"/usr/local/share". The fact that /usr is read-only does not mean that you 
cannot place configuration data there. Just the system will operate if /usr 
is mount read-only.

Michael

-- 
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Michael Stevens Systems Engineering
Navigation Systems, Estimation and
Bayesian Filtering
http://bayesclasses.sf.net
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