by dathinab | 2025-10-24 22:15:02+00:00
I mean /var/lock was kinda on the way of being super seeded when FHS3 was written 20 years ago. We known it is bad design since a similar amount of time.

If FHS hadn't been unmaintained for nearly 2 decades I'm pretty sure non-root /var/lock would most likely have been deprecated over a decade ago (or at least recommended against being used). We know that cross user writable global dirs are a pretty bad idea since decades, if we can't even fix that I don't see a future for Linux tbh.(1)

Sure systemd should have given them a heads up, sure it makes sense to temporary revert this change to have a transition period. But this change has be on the horizon for over 20 year, and there isn't really any way around it long term.

(1): This might sound a bit ridiculous, but security requirements have been changing. In 2000 trusting most programs you run was fine. Today not so much, you can't really trust anything you run anymore. And it's just a matter of time until it is negligent (like in a legal liability way) if you trust anything but your core OS components, and even that not without constraints. As much as it sucks, if Linux doesn't adept it dies. And it does adopt, but mostly outside of the GPG/FSF space and also I think a bit to slow on desktop. I'm pretty worried about that.

> > FHS isn't maintained. > Isn't maintained or not improved fast enough to please systemd devs? IDK.

more like not maintained at all for 20+ years in a context where everything around it had major changes to the requirements/needs

they didn't even fix the definition of /var/lock. They say it can be used for various lock files but also specify a naming convention must be used, which only works for devices and also only for such not in a sub-dir structure. It also fails to specify that it you should (or at least are allowed to cleared the dir with reboot, something they do clarify for temp). It also in a foot note says all locks should be world readable, but that isn't true anymore since a long time. There are certain lock grouping folders (also not in the spec) where you don't need or want them to be public as it only leaks details which maybe an attacker could use in some obscure niche case.

A mature standard is one which has fixes, improvements and clarification, including wrt. changes in the environment its used in. A standard which recognizes when there is some suboptimal design and adds a warning, recommending not to use that sub-optimal desing etc. Nothing of the sort happened with this standard.

What we see instead is a standard which not only hasn't gotten any relevant updates for ~20 years but didn't even fix inconsistencies in itself.

For a standard to become mature it needs mature, that is a process of growing up, like fixing inconsistencies, clarifications, and deprecation (which doesn't imply removal later one). And this hasn't happen for a long time. Just because something has been used for a long time doesn't mean it's mature.

And if you want to be nit picky even Debian doesn't "fully" comply with FH3, because there are points in it which just don't make sense anymore, and they haven't been fixed them for 20 years.