On Sat, Mar 12, 2022 at 08:00:10PM +0100, i...@tutanota.com wrote: > > > > Why does the ramdisk not include /usr/bin/vi by default? To date, > > it is the only UNIX-like environment I have ever seen without some > > form of vi. > > Theo's answer: "For the same reasons it doesn't contain a web browser:Not > required, and besides that far too large." > > That is ridicules! > > ed is for teleprinters, a monitor based editor is very much required. > Fiddling around with configuration files with ed is like being tied up with > your hands and feet behind your back being told to eat a pizza from the floor! > > Out of room? What does that even mean? Are you still using floppy disks!? > > install70.img is 664M and the install70.iso is 529M, I believe vi takes up > 359K, surely > there is room.
you should look at bsd.rd size instead. it is the install media, and it is far smaller (4.4M here). so 359K is about 8% in size. if you need vi to repair your system (depending the exact problem), you could mount your partitions from the bsd.rd image, using something like (untested): # cd /dev && sh ./MAKEDEV sd0 # create sd0 nodes # mount -r /dev/sd0a /mnt # mount root partition (readonly) # chroot /mnt # chroot to /mnt (chroot)# mount -a # mount all partition (chroot)# vi # you could run vi you could also use another system to build a static binary, and copy it on bsd.rd (via download or via usb drive). you could also put your hard disk in another machine to mount and repair it. -- Sebastien Marie
