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Re: [News] Linux Got the Directory/File Hierarchy Right

In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Erik Funkenbusch
<erik@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 wrote
on Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:18:56 -0600
<gacpgn5gzhmg$.dlg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> On Mon, 13 Nov 2006 22:00:59 +0000, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> Why is the linux file hierarchy better?
>> 
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>| There are many articles around the web about the differences between
>>| the windows file hierarchy and the linux one. One thing they don't say
>>| is which one is better and why. My aim in this article is to show why
>>| the linux file hierarchy is a better model.
>> `----
>> 
>> http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/linux/locutus/archives/why-is-the-linux-file-hierarchy-better-12916
>> http://tinyurl.com/ylm2ek
>
> Gah, what a complete load of nonsense.
>
> "If you try to install it anywhere else you will have problems. This is
> because all windows programs assume that windows is in drive C and will
> barf if it is not."
>
> Complete and utter bogus, I've almost never had my windows directory on
> drive c.  Not even Windows 95 required this (though you did have to have
> msdos.sys and io.sys on c:)
>
> One thing that pisses me off with the linux filesystem is that there's no
> way to assign a label to a path.  Sure, you can create a symlink to ito
> somwhere, like your home directory, but you can't assign a global label.
> Windows has mappable drive letters, AmigaOS had labels, etc...

What is a "label" in this context?

VMS: there was API and builtin commands to assign logical names to
pathnames.  These were either process-specific or
for the entire system (e.g., ASSIGN/SYSTEM DRA0:[SYSTEM] SYS$SYSTEM
or some such).  Labels start with a letter and can be any RAD50 entry,
if I'm not mistaken (this includes letters, numbers, and '_').

Amiga: one can assign logical names for the entire system only.
The syntax is something like Assign NAME: pathname, though I might
have them reversed.

MacOS: unknown.

MacOSX: unknown.

DOS: There is a SUBST command.  This also works in Windows XP, allowing
assignment of drive letters anywhere.  Of course there are only 26 drive
letters, three of which are used during bootup (A:, B:, and C:).

Unix: There are no labels as such.  Symbolic links are a partial
substitute; variable references ($name) might work in some applications,
such as shell scripts; however, these are specific to the shell.
Mountpoints are also a substitute; basically, if /mnt/something is
associated with a different physical device, then all references
starting with /mnt/something will go to that device (unless another
mountpoint or symlink gets into the act).

Linux: Same as Unix.

DomainOS 10 (?): Special symlinks were available that
were interpreted as environment variable references.  If one did

    crl mylink '$(ENVVAR)/subpath'

which is roughly equivalent to the Unix/Linux

    ln -s '$(ENVVAR)/subpath' mylink

then any reference using mylink will reference ENVVAR in the current
shell.  Very useful when emulating BSD and SysV.

Now...would you mind clarifying your enhancement request? :-)

-- 
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Useless C++ Programming Idea #889123:
std::vector<...> v; for(int i = 0; i < v.size(); i++) v.erase(v.begin() + i);

-- 
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