On Fri, Apr 8, 2016 at 4:07 PM, <waltd...@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 <waltd...@waltdnes.org> > I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications > >
