[pacman-dev] File/Path locations

[Dan McGee]

On 7/13/07, Aaron Griffin <aaronmgriffin at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6/19/07, Andrew Fyfe <andrew at neptune-one.net> wrote:
> > Dan McGee wrote:
> > > On 6/4/07, Andrew Fyfe <andrew at neptune-one.net> wrote:
> > >> Default behaviour for 'pacman --root'
> > >> pacman --root /foobar
> > >>         Root Dir  : /foobar
> > >>         DB Path   : /foobar/$localstatedir/lib/pacman
> > >>         Cache Dir : /foobar/$localstatedir/cache/pacman/pkg
> > >>
> > >>         Lock File : /foobar/$localstatedir/run/pacman.lck
> > >>         Cfg File  : /foobar/$sysconfigdir/pacman.conf
> > >
> > > This is a reply to the whole email, but I wanted to highlight stuff
> > > from above. This is no longer the case- I just eliminated this
> > > behavior. Every path is independent of the others. ROOTDIR is
> > > *completely* seperate now.
> >
> > Sorry this is still bugging me, having to type 'pacman -r ... -b ... -c
> > ...' is a pain in the ass. 99% of the time when I'm using 'pacman -r' I
> > want the same fs layout with a different root dir prefix. Am I the only
> > one that uses 'pacman -r' like this most of the time.
>
> I actually might agree with Andrew here.  Usually when I use -r, it's
> like "hey lets install bash in my homedir" or "lets make a chroot dir
> that I can use later".  I want to use everything else the parent
> system has, as far as cache and configs go.
>
> I dunno, what are all the use cases for using -r?  Can someone list a
> use case where specifying all dirs is common?

Well my original thought was flexibility. Before you couldn't do some
things that you can do now. Examples:
1. I want to build a chroot without doing crazy rsync/hardlinking of
the pacman cache directory.
2. I want to make a more secure chroot. I don't want the pacman DB,
cached packages, or the logfile in the actual chroot.

And before I made all these changes, I found it odd that the logfile
was always specified with an absolute path but nothing else was.

To be honest, I'm not sure of all the use cases of --root. If anyone
wants to chime in on this it would be appreciated.

-Dan