Forum OpenACS Improvement Proposals (TIPs): TIP #11 (Rejected): Recommended service location is /var/lib/aolserver/SERVICENAME

The new recommended service location /var/lib/aolserver/. This location is the default in the code, such as in /etc/config.tcl, and in the documentation. The default service name is service0, so that default installs automatically go to /var/lib/aolserver/service0

Justification

The current recommended service home is /web/SERVICENAME, so that a service called foobar would be in /web/foobar, and by default be owned by a user name foobar and use a database called foobar.

This location does not comply with the Linux Standard Base, so we need to move it if we want OpenACS to comply, and thus be eligable for inclusion in compliant distributions.

We could go in /var/www, which is a standard location for websites, but Apache uses this so people who wanted to run both simultaneously, or try out OpenACS, would have problems. /var/lib/aolserver/SERVICENAME avoids these problems.

Since SERVICENAME is a placeholder, we should use a specific name for the default service. Earlier versions of OpenACS used birdnotes or openacs-4 The default service name should be unique, so that it can easily be identified and replaced; it should be specific, so that it is recognizable out of context; it should be generic, so that it can be left unchanged and not be inappropriate or obsolete. Since 4.6.3 we've used service0 as the default service name and, while not perfect, it seems to be acceptable.

Reference threads: moving the default SERVERHOME. Again., Reference Platforms and Supported Platforms.

Hi Joel,

Ok. (not sure if I can vote to approve), but OK by me.

Although maybe /etc/aolserver/SERVICENAME.tcl would be better, we plan to move to /etc too.

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Posted by Lars Pind on
Don't know much about recommended locations, but it sounds right to me.
Why should it comply with LSB?  Last I've heard OpenACS is *not* a Linux-only application.

/var/www is probably standard, but again -- on Linux.  *BSD will likely have it inder /usr/local/aolserver.  Windows will have it anywhere :)  Dunno about OSX.

To cut it short -- as long as you provide a reference point in a tutorial/user doc ("For the purpose of this tutorial we will install AOLserver under /some/path and OpenACS data will reside under /openacs/server/data/path") would it be difficult for a user to follow?