Package: debian-policy I would like to recommend packages to use tmpfiles.d(5) to manage creating directories in locations such as /var or /etc instead of maintainer scripts.
It could also be used to create trivial files below /var that should be recreated if deleted by accident (such as atd's sequence number which is currently created by the maintainer script). This has advantages over maintainer scripts: - It's declarative instead of imperative. - Directories/files get recreated automatically if deleted; previously packages would sometimes just fail if one deleted, for example, a subdirectory of /var/cache. - Manipulating ownership of files is prone to race conditions or fun with hard- and symlinks; many maintainer scripts don't do this fully correct. - It brings stateless systems (which start with empty /etc, /var) a bit closer. I'm also fine with alternatives such as using `CacheDirectory=`, `StateDirectory=`, `ConfigurationDirectory=` or `LogsDirectory=` in .service files where appropriate. I have no opinion on implementation details so far. As far as I understand the current GR is unrelated to adopting things like systemd-tmpfiles. Ansgar
