Arch Linux

Description:

In the (default) persistent cache mode, the nscd daemon expects to place its cache files in directory /var/db/nscd. However, this directory isn't created when the glibc package is installed (as of glibc package version 2.25-7).

Additional info:

This issue has been pointed out in bug reports and the forums on several occasions before, but seems to keep slipping though the net.
It is easily worked around by manually creating the /var/db/nscd directory. See e.g.:
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/2224
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/2697
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=178371

I suggest adding the missing directory to the glibc PKGBUILD:
install -dm755 ${pkgdir}/var/db/nscd

Note that other distros seem to commonly patch the glibc source to locate the nscd cache in /var/cache, /var/lib or elsewhere, so it probably isn't an issue upstream.

Steps to reproduce:

#systemctl start nscd
#systemctl status nscd
...
... cannot create /var/db/nscd/passwd; no persistent database used
... cannot create /var/db/nscd/group; no persistent database used
... cannot create /var/db/nscd/hosts; no persistent database used
... cannot create /var/db/nscd/services; no persistent database used
... cannot create /var/db/nscd/netgroup; no persistent database used