Subject: Comments on Draft 2

From: [email-masked] (Michael K. Johnson)
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 92 16:32:32 CST

Date: Wed, 12 Feb 92 12:10:57 GMT
   From: [email-masked]
   Myname: A. V. Le Blanc

   1)  I am a little unhappy about having init in /bin, since no
       user -- not even root -- needs to access it.  Should this
       be in lib?

I don't think that we want any executables in /lib.  if you don't want
it in bin, you could put it in /etc, but we are trying to keep
executables out of /etc in the standard, if I recall corectly.  So
/bin makes sense to me.  And it doesn't cost _that_ much search time,
and when we get ffs and other advanced fs's that do non-linear
searches, it will essentially be a moot point.  And it shouldn't be
that much longer till ffs, so let's design around ffs not the v7 fs.

   2)  I do not think root's home directory should be in /, since
       this means that / tends to accumulate .exrc, .profile, .bashrc,
       .kermrc, etc.  Also there are utilities that write files in
       your home directory; these should not write to /.

Correct me if I am wrong (not that I am worried that people wouldn't...
:-) but root, the user, should not have such files.  once we have
init, we want to spend as little time logged in as root as possible,
and then usually su'd to root.

   3)  What goes in /lib?  The draft says 'libraries required for
       system initialisation'.  I presume this is either shared
       libraries (in which case libc.a belongs here, not in /usr/lib)
       or libraries needed to reconfigure the kernel (in which case,
       /lib does not seem as approproate as /usr/etc or /etc).

Good point, I think.  Unless we staticly link everything in /bin, we
need the shared libes in the root fs.  ooh, yuk.  Anyone have a better
solution?  I'd hate to go with staticly linked /sbin and dynamically
linked /bin...

Of course, I am probably missing something entirely...

michaelkjohnson
[email-masked]
Look, Ma, no .sig!

---

From: [email-masked] (The Grand Master)
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 92 9:13:23 EST

In the unforgettable words of  Michael K. Johnson:
->
->   Date: Wed, 12 Feb 92 12:10:57 GMT
->   From: [email-masked]
->   Myname: A. V. Le Blanc
->
->I don't think that we want any executables in /lib.  if you don't want
->it in bin, you could put it in /etc, but we are trying to keep
->executables out of /etc in the standard, if I recall corectly.  So
->/bin makes sense to me.  And it doesn't cost _that_ much search time,
->and when we get ffs and other advanced fs's that do non-linear
->searches, it will essentially be a moot point.  And it shouldn't be
->that much longer till ffs, so let's design around ffs not the v7 fs.

Well.......
     I do not understand this fascination with keeping executables out
of etc. It is normal, traditional UNIX convention for mount, umount, 
mknod, mkfs, shutdown, etc to be in /etc (no pun intended). I think
it should be done that way.
->
->   2)  I do not think root's home directory should be in /, since
->       this means that / tends to accumulate .exrc, .profile, .bashrc,
->       .kermrc, etc.  Also there are utilities that write files in
->       your home directory; these should not write to /.
->
->Correct me if I am wrong (not that I am worried that people wouldn't...
->:-) but root, the user, should not have such files.  once we have
->init, we want to spend as little time logged in as root as possible,
->and then usually su'd to root.

root still needs .profile, .exrc, and .bashrc. When you log in as root
(those seldom occasions) you want your environment set up. And when you
su to root, you want .bashrc to set some things up for you (maybe an
alias like alias rm='rm -i'). In either case, you want .exrc (or .emacs
if you prefer emacs) so that when root edits files, your normal (or
some special root) macros are available.
->

			Bruce

-- 
Disclaimer: The aka "The Grand Master"         Courtesy of Bruce Varney
            is due to an inside joke among     aka -> The Grand Master
            myself and some old friends -      [email-masked]
            so please don't take offense       PUCC