GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 703813
use /var/lib instead of /etc
Last modified: 2013-07-08 21:52:53 UTC
There is a new emerging FHS that recommends storing writable state/configuration data into /var/lib/<id> instead of /etc/<id>. It would be nice for NetworkManager to do that as well and to leave /etc empty by default. Or even better, just read system defaults from /usr/lib/NetworkManager/* or compile them in and not need a configuration file at all by default.
[citation required]? I'd like to see exactly what it recommends.
Nothing official yet. But... https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ojgzJOfWB8XaC5kqyrv4IhR9snZKBI77a02R4cj1QM8/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000#slide=id.i0 And I have a draft of the new XDG BaseDirs spec that complies.
So, if we were going to comply with that spec fully, we'd have to do lots of other things too, like using /var/lib/org.freedesktop.NetworkManager/ rather than {/etc,/var/lib}/NetworkManager, and installing the NM binary into /usr/lib/org.freedesktop.NetworkManager/ rather than /sbin. We're not going to do that unless this spec gets some momentum behind it, and I don't think there's any advantage to moving part-way towards it now, especially since on most distros, the network configurations would still be stored in /etc, because they're shared with non-NM code. So, WONTFIX unless/until either Fedora or at least two other major distros adopt the new standard.
Fine. Don't have the energy to resist.