I have trouble understanding /var/lib. I'm trying to set up a network of debian workstations. They will have /usr nfs-mounted from a server (ro), local /var and the / copied over using cfengine (excludung hardware-dependent files). The question is what should I do with /var/lib ? Is it something that can be generated locally ? Does not seem to be: tex requires quite a lot of files in there in order to work. Can I mount it ro via nfs ? But then why is it /var ? Presumably I need a write access there. Do I have to distribute the contents of /var/lib to all clients ? But that's quite a lot (I see 25Mb), and then I can accidentally overwrite local files - so this is no better than nfs.
So, what is /var/lib ? What should I do with it ? Sergey.