This was something like ~8 years ago, but here's an excerpt from my notes when using Redhat:

    # ls -l /etc/httpd/
    conf
    conf.d
    logs -> ../../var/log/httpd
    modules -> ../../usr/lib/httpd/modules
    run -> ../../var/run

Reactions:

    * Why is 'grep -r /etc' taking so long?
    * Why am I seeing log entries in the output?
    * Why am I seeing 'permission denied' on a bunch of socket files?

Debian seems to have the most respect for the FHS. http://www.pathname.com/fhs/

A few more, from my notes:

These were the default permissions of the apache log dir:

    # ls -ld /var/log/httpd/
    drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Jan 18 12:09 /var/log/httpd/

I guess their expectation is that only root should ever need to read a log file? Contrast this with Debian, which gives read access to admins:

    $ ls -ld /var/log/apache2
    drwxr-x--- 2 root adm 4096 Jan 16 06:25 /var/log/apache2

Redhat also decided to stick wsgi sockets into the log dir. If you try to run a wsgi process as anyone other than root, you get a permissions error:

    (13)Permission denied: mod_wsgi (pid=31431): Unable to connect to WSGI daemon process 'bob' on '/etc/httpd/logs/wsgi.1965.3.1.sock' after multiple attempts.

To fix this problem, you have to tell wsgi to stick its socket files somewhere more reasonable, like /var/run (which is what Debian does by default).

When you look up the modwsgi "Common Problems" page, the very first entry describes exactly this issue... https://code.google.com/archive/p/modwsgi/wikis/Configuratio...

'cfdisk' was removed from the distro because it was "a pile of junk". Really? That's funny -- I've used it to create dozens of Debian partitions and never had a problem. https://partner-bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=53061

> These were the default permissions of the apache log dir

Since systemd came along, you're supposed to use journalctl though.

That applies to Debian and Ubuntu too.

Side note: What do you use to keep detailed notes, to enable you to quickly refer back to stuff 8 years later?