Re: Hurd FS hierarchy (was Re: LD_LIBRARY_PATH troubles)

[Jeroen Dekkers]

On Mon, Mar 18, 2002 at 02:49:21PM -0500, Richard Kreuter wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 18, 2002 at 07:42:56PM +0100, Jeroen Dekkers wrote:
> > On Mon, Mar 18, 2002 at 10:17:30AM -0800, Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote:
> > > Jeroen Dekkers <jeroen@dekkers.cx> writes:
> > > 
> > > > Which purpose? Having to put /sbin for a lot of programs like parted
> > > > and traceroute? Or just for those handful of programs left only usable
> > > > for a system administrator?
> > > 
> > > Have you read the coding standards?
> > 
> > Yes, but I can't find a rationale for the /sbin directory.
> 
>   Maybe there isn't a good one.  (It seems to exist (in the FHS, at
> any rate) so that some commands will be out of the way for normal
> users.  Given the number of programs on a modern system, though, any
> command the user doesn't already know about is out of the way, in the
> sense that the user will only find it by chance.)

You mean they have to do "ls /sbin" or have to put sbin in there PATH
manually? Really, I don't think it's a good argument. Why do you want
to hide the binaries?

>   That said, I'm not arguing for or against the existence of /sbin.
> I'm operating with it as given that the GNU standards and the FHS both
> define sbin as a directory for commands not needed by normal users.
> If so, then some of the commands normally found in sbin directories on
> non-GNU/Hurd systems belong in bin directories on GNU/Hurd, because
> the unprivileged user is able and encouraged to use them under normal
> system conditions.

I think the whole /sbin directory is old unix-craft like /usr. If you
move all binaries which can be useful as a normal user to /bin you
don't have much left. AFAICS both the FHS and the GCS allow symlinking
/sbin to /bin. Does anybody see a reason for not doing so?

Jeroen Dekkers
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