Re: [gentoo-dev] usr merge

[Joseph Booker]

On Fri, Apr 8, 2016 at 4:07 PM, <waltdnes@××××××××.org> wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 08, 2016 at 09:20:19AM -0500, William Hubbs wrote
> >
> > Here is more info about the split and why it exists. It turns out it hs
> > nothing to do with system admininistration or permissions.
> >
> > http://lists.busybox.net/pipermail/busybox/2010-December/074114.html
> >
> http://www.osnews.com/story/25556/Understanding_the_bin_sbin_usr_bin_usr_sbin_Split/
> > https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3519952
> >
> > In short, this is all a historical artifact with justifications thought
> > up after the fact.
>
>   The historical reasons may or may not exist any longer.  The question
> is "what is the current situation?".  The current situation is that
> there are 3 classes of software...
> 1) system software that is required for bootup (mount, init, etcetera)
> 2) system software that is usually used by root for admin purposes
> 3) regular applications that users use
>
>   Question... do we really want "GIMP", "Firefox", etcetera, in the same
> directory as "mount", "chroot", "login", "passwd", "ifconfig", etcetera?
>

From my own experience, it is useful to run "ifconfig" or "mount" as a
regular user, same as the gimp or firefox commands. Given that all the
commands you listed are in /usr/bin or /bin, I think I'm not the only one.
The difference between "system software" and "regular applications" isn't
clear-cut.



> I don't think so.  I want separate "system progs" versus "user progs"
> directories.  There may be an argument for merging /bin and /sbin
> directories (items 1 and 2 above), but user applications should be
> separate.  If we move /bin and /sbin into /usr/bin, I suggest moving all
> user programs to /usr/local/binuser applications should be separate.  If
> we move /bin and /sbin into /usr/bin, I suggest moving all user programs
> to /usr/local/bin.
>
> --
> Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org>
> I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications
>
>