https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#.2Frun suggests that /var/run is something separate from /run. This is misleading. Suggested rewording below.
Old text:
System services may need to store run-time variable data somewhere before /var/run is mounted. Currently, many programs are abusing /dev for that purpose. A few distributions have figured out elaborate hacks to use /var/run even before /var itself is mounted to do this. These are seen as less than ideal, however. Several major distributions have committed to support using /run for this purpose instead. For now, applications can use /run or /var/run almost interchangably. /run MUST be used when the application can be started during boot before /var may be mounted.
System services may need to store run-time variable data somewhere before /var/run is mounted. Currently, many programs are abusing /dev for that purpose. A few distributions have figured out elaborate hacks to use /var/run even before /var itself is mounted to do this. These are seen as less than ideal, however. Several major distributions have committed to support using /run for this purpose instead.
For now, applications can use /run or /var/run almost interchangably. /run MUST be used when the application can be started during boot before /var may be mounted.
Suggested rewording:
System services should store small volatile run-time data in /run. It is a tmpfs backed directory that is mounted in very early boot, before any services are started (and before /var is available). /var/run is a legacy symlink to /run.
Is it always tmpfs now, I thought that was optional?
It's always tmpfs. Maybe you're thinking of /tmp, which can be configured to be something different than tmpfs.
We discussed this at this weeks meeting (http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-meeting-1/2016-04-28/fpc.2016-04-28-16.00.txt):
+1 for the rewording to a should to prefer /run for anything small and volatile instead of only early started programs.
Sorry, I got pulled away from the meeting last night as it overran.
+1 from me too, for the record.
We discussed this at this weeks meeting (http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-meeting-1/2016-05-05/fpc.2016-05-05-16.00.txt):
The section on use of /run has been simplified.
Metadata Update from @james: - Issue assigned to tibbs
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