FC3: How should /var/run be mounted?

[James Wilkinson]

Michael W. Carney wrote:
> I have a separate partition for /var/, mounted thusly:
> 
> /dev/sdb7 on /var type ext3 (rw,noexec)
> 
> I used the standard fc install, specifying the extra partitions I wanted,
> which produced the fstab with this entry.
> 
> Why is /var/run on a partition that's mounted noexec? That seems
> problematic, since I thought /var/run was to be used for temporary
> files/scripts, and obviously, scripts wouldn't execute.
> 
> Any folklore, history, etc regarding /var/run/ and linux is welcomed.

Good question!

To be honest, I'd never heard of people putting scripts in /var/run. The
first and obvious place to look is the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard at
http://www.pathname.com/fhs/ , or
http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#VARRUNRUNTIMEVARIABLEDATA
for the /var/run section. I won't quote it all, but it says:
    This directory contains system information data describing the
    system since it was booted.
and principally mentions PID files.

This seems to tie in with the way Fedora's /var/run directory is
organised.

It also raises the question "so where *are* temporary scripts supposed
to go?" 

I'm not sure there are that many programs that create and run temporary
scripts. I know I've tripped up occasionally when compiling stuff that
wants to run scripts out of /tmp (while I'd got that mounted noexec).

I'd be inclined to run with it and see what breaks.

You might also want to ask in news:alt.folklore.computers .

Hope this helps,

James.
-- 
E-mail address: james | For every complex problem, there is a solution that
@westexe.demon.co.uk  | is simple, neat, and wrong.