Re: cfengine config files location

[Tim Nelson]

On Sun, 26 Sep 2004, Hauke Fath wrote:

> On Fri, 24 Sep 2004 13:14:55 +1000 (EST) Tim Nelson wrote:
>
> > /etc/cfengine/master: cfengine configuration files to be rolled out
>
> Please consider sticking with the default of /var/cfengine. This is more
> appropriate than /etc, since the directory is written to quite
> frequently.

	Just to clear things up, I'm not suggesting that we change 
/var/cfengine to anything else.  I'm suggesting that we keep all of it 
right where it is.  It's just fine for everything it does.

	The one thing we don't have is a standardised location for the 
master cfengine files.  For example, I use /var/cfengine/clients/inputs at 
the moment.

	Apologies for being Linux centric in the following example, but I 
don't have access to the appropriate information for other systems.  If 
they differ from the Linux example below, perhaps someone could provide 
some additional information.

---------------------
> From the Linux FHS:

/var contains variable data files. This includes spool directories and 
files, administrative and logging data, and transient and temporary files.

The /etc hierarchy contains configuration files. A "configuration file" is 
a local file used to control the operation of a program; it must be static 
and cannot be an executable binary.
---------------------

        In the above, I admit to being unsure what "static" means.

---------------------
> From Linux's "man hier":

       /etc   Contains configuration files which are  local  to  the  machine.
              Some larger software packages, like X11, can have their own sub-
              directories below /etc.  Site-wide configuration  files  may  be
              placed  here  or  in  /usr/etc.   Nevertheless,  programs should
              always look for these files in /etc and you may have  links  for
              these files to /usr/etc.

       /var   This  directory contains files which may change in size, such as
              spool and log files.
---------------------

	To summarise, I'd be saying that /var is logging, cache, and spool 
things, whereas /etc is configuration.

	So all the stuff currently in /var/cfengine pretty much belongs 
there (input/output cache/logs and the like), but the master configuration 
belongs in /etc.

	Naturally, feel free to provide us with more information or 
interpretation.

        :)

--
Tim Nelson
Server Administrator
WebAlive Technologies Global
Level 1 Innovation Building, Digital Harbour
1010 LaTrobe Street
Docklands, Melbourne, 
Vic, 3008
Phone: +61 3 9934 0812
Fax: +61 3 9934 0899
E-mail: tim.nelson@webalive.biz
http://www.webalive.biz/