I’ve never understood why applications don’t use the `/srv` directory defined by the FHS (Filesystem...

# ktor

[bdawg.io]

I’ve never understood why applications don’t use the /srv directory defined by the FHS (Filesystem Hierarchy Standard) since 2004 which most Linux distros follow

/srv contains site-specific data which is served by this system.

[napperley]

Many Linux distros use a different place for serving site data. With Debian (including Debian based ones like Ubuntu) the /var/www directory is used (for Apache).

[napperley]

The /srv directory doesn't exist in Debian and all distros based on Debian (incl Ubuntu and Linux Mint).

[orangy]

I wonder what’s the Linux-way to discover proper configuration information like this?

[bdawg.io]

We’ve used /srv on Ubuntu for even our PHP applications (regardless of Apache or PHP-FPM) for 5 years now. It absolutely exists on base Debian too (check for yourself docker run --rm debian ls -ls / | grep srv)

[bdawg.io]

Debians wiki defines the directory as

Site-specific data which is served by the system

[bdawg.io]

In particular, paths specifically created by the FHS editors, such as /media/ and /srv/, do not see widespread usage.

^^ This is certainly the case but doesn’t make it any less part of the defined standard

[bdawg.io]

@orangy I would probably say the Linux Standard Base (part of the Linux Foundation) which also names FHS
https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/lsb/about

When targeting Linux as a platform, application developers want to have some assurance that the code they write on one Linux distribution will run on other Linux distributions without having to go through extra effort. This matches their experiences on other popular platforms, such as Windows or Mac OS X.

The LSB workgroup has, as its core goal, to address these two concerns. We publish a standard that describes the minimum set of APIs a distribution must support, in consultation with the major distribution vendors.

[bdawg.io]

It’s also worth mentioning that Apache (including under Debian) actually ships with /srv in its configuration that’s just commented out for legacy reasons

[napperley]

Must be Ubuntu which doesn't include the /srv directory by default.

[bdawg.io]

@napperley Again, we use /srv provided by Ubuntu (as a sub-distro of Debian). This can also be verified docker run --rm ubuntu ls -ls / | grep srv

[bdawg.io]

Out of curiosity, I checked the Ubuntu documentation on its filesystem and the first version available of the page February 2006 (almost 13 years ago) documents the /srv directory and using /srv/www as the HTTP document root (it still documents /srv/ww in the latest update from January 2016).

Similarly, the Debian wiki documentation on its hierarchy first published in January 2004 directly references FHS (which included /srv as of 2004)