RE: [TCLUG:15481] Faeriedist, and directory layouts in general

["Eric Hillman" <ehillman@cccu.com>]

> It bothers me that I have to look in /usr/man, /usr/local/man,
> /usr/doc,/usr/local/doc/,/usr/share/man,/usr/local/share/man,
> etc. just to find documentation!  How horrible is that?

  Isn't that what "locate" or "man -k" are for?  Personally, I have rarely had
any need to know specifically where my manpages are coming from -- and at least
as far as "/usr" vs "/usr/local", there's a perfectly rational and obvious
reason to use that on any system that uses install packages.  (I'll agree that
it probably could have been kept to two 'man' directories rather than 4, but I
may be overlooking an equally rational and obvious reason to use a finer-grained
system)

> Looking at a SuSE system, here, let's say I want to look at my
> apache installation.  Here's what I see:
>
> /etc/httdp/ --> Configuration files (I like this)
> /usr/doc/packages/apache --> Some docs
> /usr/local/httpd --> cgi-bin, htdocs, icons, and include
> /usr/man --> More docs
> /usr/sbin --> Some apache executables
> /usr/bin --> Other apache executables
> /var/cache/httpd --> Beginning of var madness
> /var/lock/subsys/httpd --> It keeps going
> /var/log/httpd* --> Logs
> /var/run --> PID #
>
> Now, for my customized system at home:
> /web --> All apache

  Well, jeez, in that case why not just dump everything in the root folder --
then it'll be even *easier* to find!  (Or you could follow the lead of a certain
popular OS and dump almost everything in c:\windows\system)

  Again, there's a very good reason for much of this stuff.  /etc/httpd is a
pretty good idea, and having a folder specifically for the documents apache is
going to serve (I prefer /home/httpd) strikes me as pretty rational -- it
parallels nicely with my /home/samba and /home/ftp directories.  I always put
daemons in /usr/sbin, because I want good access control, and I don't want them
in my default path when I'm not superuser...  The "var madness" above has a
similar rationale -- the same users/processes that can read/modify the lock file
may be very distinctly *not* the ones we want reading and modifying the logs.

 I think we just think differently -- I think of apache as one daemon among
many, and I like to have it set up in a way that neatly and easily parallels
other, similar daemons.  Your method of completely segregating it from the rest
of the system may be fine if apache is the only thing you're running, but I'm
not sure this approach scales well.

> Or perhaps how it would be on Faeriedist:
> /etc/httpd --> Apache configuration
> /var/httpd --> Apache var stuff
> /opt/httpd (maybe) --> Apache executables, and htdocs
> /usr/doc --> Apache docs
> /usr/man --> Apache man

OK, this sounds pretty reasonable, except that there's really no way I'd ever
put the executables in the same directory as the documents they serve up...  I
realize that this is probably more paranoia than prudent sysadminning, but I
sleep better when my httpd executable resides on a different *partition*, let
alone directory, from my htdocs.

Also, I like having all my system logs under /var/log, so I have one point of
access to deal with security-wise.  Plus, if I'm having some unspecified network
problem, or trying to figure out what some would-be intruder thought he was up
to, I can just sit in /var/log and grep everything under it recursively for the
offending IP.

> I do think that having everything in /opt/httpd would be good, too.  At
> work, we can pick up and move whole installations of software at any
> time by moving *one* directory.  (and creating a symlink)

 There's something to be said for this, I suppose, but I can't hink of any
situation where I've wanted to move httpd, its logs, lockfiles and cache *and*
the htdocs all at once.  Usually it's either just the executables or just the
htdocs.

 Also, I suppose it's worth hammering into the ground that being able to wipe
out your whole apache setup in one command may be a little too much convenience
for one's own good.

--
Eric Hillman
UNIX Sysadmin/Webmaster
City & County Credit Union
ehillman@cccu.com