Storing pid file for a daemon run as user
Is there a preferred place to store a pid file for a daemon that's run as a user? /var/run is the standard place, but this is for a user daemon so it doesn't have write privileges there. Presumably my daemon will be started from .profile or .bashrc or something. Is just saving it to /tmp a bad idea?
Answer
If it's being run for a user, let's see, what sort of storage exists that is user-specific.
Hmmm.
That's it! The home directory. I knew it would come to me eventually :-)
Sorry for the light jab. Seriously, I would just stash the PID into $HOME/.daemon.pid or ~/.daemon.pid (how you name the file is up to you of course).
This is, of course, assuming you will only have one daemon running for a user. If not, you'll need to be a bit trickier.
And hopefully allaying your fears that a user will inadvertently delete unknown files in their home directory, that's why you make it "hidden" by starting it with a . character.
Most non-experienced users should never even see these and experienced users should know better than to muck about with them.