Arch Linux

Gingko

Member

Registered: 2015-07-04

Posts: 17

"Packages should not contain any of the following directories"

Hello.

In the "Arch packaging standards" Wiki page, I can read the following:

• Packages should not contain any of the following directories:

  • /bin

  • /sbin

  • /dev

  • /home

  • /srv

  • /media

  • /mnt

  • /proc

  • /root

  • /selinux

  • /sys

  • /tmp

  • /var/tmp

  • /run

In that list, I can see the /srv directory.

As far as I know, this is usually the directory under which web sites are published (likely into /srv/http or /srv/www, whereas it was common in the past to install them in the /var/www directory).

Among others, I want to create a package that installs a predefined web site.

I would like to understand:

• Why shouldn't I install anything into the /srv directory?

• Is it really absolutely forbidden to install directly into that directory? For any purpose?

• What should I do instead for installing my predefined web site?

Regards,

Gingko

WorMzy

Forum Moderator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 11,844

Website

Re: "Packages should not contain any of the following directories"

I can't answer the why, but I suspect it's because that directory is more for user-made content.

As for whether it's forbidden, no. Most webapp packages (e.g. phpmyadmin, mediawiki, drupal, etc) install to /usr/share/webapps, but some (notably bugzilla and websvn) do install to /srv.

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Gingko

Member

Registered: 2015-07-04

Posts: 17

Re: "Packages should not contain any of the following directories"

I can't answer the why, but I suspect it's because that directory is more for user-made content.

Ok.

But in my case I am developing for a website embedded in a display device.

So there will be no user-made content.
Or more formerly, as a developer, I am the only one user.

Gingko

WorMzy

Forum Moderator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 11,844

Website

Re: "Packages should not contain any of the following directories"

If this is a package for your own personal use, then you can do whatever you want. Those guidelines are more for Arch Linux devs and people who want to share packages on the AUR. It's still good practice to adhere to the standards outlined on that page as best as you can, but there's no repercussions for breaking them (besides the obvious points, such as things installed to a tmpfs will not persist across boots, pacman won't blindly overwrite files that belong to other packages, etc).

---

Sakura:-
Mobo: MSI MAG X570S TORPEDO MAX // Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X @4.9GHz // GFX: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT // RAM: 32GB (4x 8GB) Corsair DDR4 (@ 3000MHz) // Storage: 1x 3TB HDD, 6x 1TB SSD, 2x 120GB SSD, 1x 275GB M2 SSD

Making lemonade from lemons since 2015.