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Alexandru Mincu wrote: |
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> Hi all, |
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> I don't know if this has come up before so excuse me if I am repeating. |
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> I recently stumbled upon the following Linux distribution: |
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> http://www.gobolinux.org/ |
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> They have an idea that Mac OS X implemented it when it first came out to |
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> be more user friendly. |
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> They are trying to remove the old UNIX file system scheme with the/bin |
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> /etc /usr /var, etc directories and are trying to implement a little |
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> more intuitive version of the file system hierarchy. |
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As far as I understand it the idea of Gobo is that filesystems and |
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directories were invented to keep things organized, and the traditional |
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way of organizing has a few drawbacks. They use the filesystem as a |
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package manager. In this way they gain almost for free a package manager |
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which supports: |
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1) easy removal of packages, simply delete its directory and update the |
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symlinks. |
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They have some scripts for updationg the symlinks. |
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2) slotting. |
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3) security. When installing a package, it only has write access to its |
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own directory. I'm guessing they do this with ACLs. |
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So we have this cool package manager which supports 1) and 2), but not |
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3) I think, and they have almost no package manager, but it supports 1), |
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2) and 3). |
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My conclusion is that they have the simpler solution and also technical |
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superiority. |
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To get compatibility, but for other reasons too I think, with the |
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traditional layout they have symlinks in the traditional places which |
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point to the new places. An alternative might be to unionfs bind |
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mount(sp?) package directories to /. Basically the filesystem is more |
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like a database and we have two different views of its contents, which |
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brings me to reiser4 :) "In the Reiser view of the future, applications |
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like relational database managers need not exist; such tasks will be |
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handled in the filesystem itself." (http://lwn.net/Articles/152548/). |
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This may make those symlinks completely obsolete. Okay :) flame away |
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Marijn |
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Some responses to concerns raised in some of the other replies: |
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This has nothing to do with being more like Mac OS X or Windows, or |
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making it easier for users of these OSes to transition. Nor is it |
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intended to make life easier solely for new users. |
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Doing Gobo inverted would not give us 3) security. |
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The 'readdir' kernel hack ("GoboHide") is completely optional and I |
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think you can ask it to show symlinks now. |
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1) is not rendered useless by all the symlinks that need to be cleaned |
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up, because those are handled by some simple scripts. |
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-- |
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