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libexecdir=/usr/sbin ?


All,

The packaging instructions at http://cygwin.com/setup.html#package_contents
indicate

[quote]
The package is configured using (at a minimum) the following paths: 
[..snip..]
  --libexecdir=/usr/sbin
[..snip..]
[/quote]

OK, this seems wrong to me.  GNU autoconf defines libexecdir as a directory for
binaries that are called by programs, and not by users.  It defaults to
/usr/sbin, but that is a violation of fhs.  Per fhs, /usr/sbin is for
nonessential administrative utilities, i.e. it is not for normal users.

The current fhs indicates /usr/lib is the right place for libexecdir:

[quote]
4.7.1. Purpose

/usr/lib includes object files, libraries, and internal binaries that are not
intended to be executed directly by users or shell scripts.

Applications may use a single subdirectory under /usr/lib. If an application
uses a subdirectory, all architecture-dependent data exclusively used by the
application must be placed within that subdirectory.
[/quote]

Search of the cygwin-apps archives reveals no discussion of this issue, but
does show some packagers are using libexecdir=/usr/lib instead of /usr/sbin.

So three questions:

(1) Wouldn't /usr/lib be preferred ?
(2) If it is preferred, why don't we update our docs?
(3) If it isn't preferred, is it acceptable?  It seems some are using it.

Thanks,

Jim Phillips


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