• Registered: 2007-08-23
  • Posts: 2

Topic: configurable global PUN_* variable to ease distribution packaging

Hi,
In order to ease packaging of punbb for linux distribution, i'm wondering if it could be possible to add some PUN_* (at lease PUN_CONF, PUN_VAR and PUN_CACHE...) global variable please ? Right now, punbb source code assume that everything is located under a single PUN_ROOT directory. But webapps packaging policy for distributions which try to be FHS compliant (http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html) requires that:
* configuration file should be locate in /etc (punbb config.php file should be located here)
* application cache data in /var/cache (punbb cache/ subdir should be located here)
* Variable state information in /var/lib (punbb img/ subdir for example should be locate here because this dir needs to be writeable by the webapp) and so forth

It would ease packager task , if  punbb looked:
* its cache directory under a PUN_CACHE root directory,
* its configuration file under a PUN_CONF root directory and
* its writeable data directory under a PUN_VAR root directory 
instead of searching those directory under a single PUN_ROOT directory

Thanks a lot.

2 Reply by MattF (edited by MattF 2007-08-23 19:17)

  • MattF
  • Senior Member
  • Offline
  • From: South Yorkshire, England
  • Registered: 2007-03-15
  • Posts: 1,956

Re: configurable global PUN_* variable to ease distribution packaging

roudoudou wrote:

(http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html) requires that:
* configuration file should be locate in /etc (punbb config.php file should be located here)
* application cache data in /var/cache (punbb cache/ subdir should be located here)
* Variable state information in /var/lib (punbb img/ subdir for example should be locate here because this dir needs to be writeable by the webapp) and so forth

Full paths are in 1.3, I believe.

However, those paths you have listed above are somewhat like *nix norms, but definitely not absolute requirements. Nothing has to be specifically placed anywhere. That is still totally down to the preference of the devs/authors, of any software.

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  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
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  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: configurable global PUN_* variable to ease distribution packaging

Moved to Feature requests

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: configurable global PUN_* variable to ease distribution packaging

This is already implemented for the cache in 1.3 for an unrelated reason.
Out of curiosity, which packaging systems enforce this requirement? It seems a bit silly, especially since you essentially lock users out of doing multiple installations.

  • Registered: 2007-08-23
  • Posts: 2

Re: configurable global PUN_* variable to ease distribution packaging

Smartys wrote:

This is already implemented for the cache in 1.3 for an unrelated reason.

ok, thanks for the information :-)

Out of curiosity, which packaging systems enforce this requirement?

FHS requirements are packaging system neutral (rpm,deb...). For example, it makes sense for example, to keep configuration files outside of the web root for security reasons...
In order to achieve a FSH-compliant package right now, linux packager have the choice to patch punbb source code or use symbolic links.   I will stick with  symbolic links for the moment as it easier for me.

It seems a bit silly, especially since you essentially lock users out of doing multiple installations.

Well, one would still have the possibility to install punbb manually instead of using the packaged version :-)

Thanks for your answers to this small feature request.