Comments on: Easing into Ubuntu http://girtby.net/archives/2006/12/17/easing-into-ubuntu/ this blog is girtby.net Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:44:34 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9-rare hourly 1 By: Sunny Kalsi http://girtby.net/archives/2006/12/17/easing-into-ubuntu/comment-page-1/#comment-1512 Sunny Kalsi Sun, 17 Dec 2006 04:50:07 +0000 http://girtby.net/2008/10/20/easing-into-ubuntu#comment-1512 <p>exactky why is it a bad idea to put web content in /var? and if not /var, then where?</p> exactky why is it a bad idea to put web content in /var? and if not /var, then where?

]]> By: Alastair http://girtby.net/archives/2006/12/17/easing-into-ubuntu/comment-page-1/#comment-1513 Alastair Sun, 17 Dec 2006 04:50:07 +0000 http://girtby.net/2008/10/20/easing-into-ubuntu#comment-1513 <p><code>/var</code> is for "multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files", at least according to <code>man hier</code> on FreeBSD, which is where I get my expectations. This <a href="http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#THEVARHIERARCHY">FHS</a> agrees:</p> <blockquote> <p><code>/var</code> contains variable data files. This includes spool directories and files, administrative and logging data, and transient and temporary files.</p> </blockquote> <p>Admittedly there is stuff in there which doesn't meet that description, like crontabs, but for the most part it's pretty accurate.</p> <p>In my mind <code>/var</code> is somewhere where the most frequently-changed stuff goes, and often deserves a completely different type of filesystem. For example, on my OpenWRT box, <code>/var</code> is stored in RAM to avoid excessive write cycles on the flash storage.</p> <p>I would say <code>/usr/www</code> or <code>/usr/local/www</code> is the place for web content.</p> /var is for “multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files”, at least according to man hier on FreeBSD, which is where I get my expectations. This FHS agrees:

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

Admittedly there is stuff in there which doesn’t meet that description, like crontabs, but for the most part it’s pretty accurate.

In my mind /var is somewhere where the most frequently-changed stuff goes, and often deserves a completely different type of filesystem. For example, on my OpenWRT box, /var is stored in RAM to avoid excessive write cycles on the flash storage.

I would say /usr/www or /usr/local/www is the place for web content.

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