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

In comp.os.linux.advocacy, spike1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<spike1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 wrote
on Mon, 13 Nov 2006 23:50:01 GMT
<96cn24-imv.ln1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> The Ghost In The Machine <ewill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> did eloquently scribble:
>> Define "better".  I'd say it's certainly more logical but
>> it's also mired in tradition as well -- why "/bin" and
>> "/usr/bin" instead of "C:\Program Files\Executables And
>> Scripts" or some such?
>
> 1: Drive letters? Pleh

Agreed.  The Amiga had a far more logical system; I
think old MacOS did, too, using 'DF0:' or 'DH0:' for the
physical device but also allowing for 'MyVolumeName:'.
It even had logical names, which one could define using the
ASSIGN executable.  Presumably this was Amiga's answer to
Unix's symbolic links -- although Amiga also implemented
hard links later, in a slightly weird fashion.

Of course the Amiga did come a year or two later out on
the market.

I don't remember what CP/M did, apart from requiring the user
to "log into" floppies.

> 2: What if you wanted to boot without /usr. Or mount /usr with different
> options, like read only?

An issue, certainly.  I think some of the distros are getting a little
sloppy but ideally /usr would be on another volume and even if that
volume fails, the system will still boot (in a rather useless but
nevertheless possibly repairable mode).

>
>> Still, the Unix file system hierarchy, apart from the
>> /etc => /sbin migration [*], has been hashed out over many
>> decades, and most of the bugs have been worked out of it
>> by now.  /opt, however, can be a bit of a grab bag, as can
>> /usr/local -- but in the latter case the sysadmin's the one
>> setting it up anyway, generally.  /dev might be slightly
>> problematic between operating systems or distributions,
>> but Gentoo lets udev do all the work now, and I doubt it's
>> the only one.
>
> udev or devfs, I think most distros have defaulted dynamic /dev now rather
> than static.
>

Wouldn't surprise me at all.  The home PC's system is a little too
dynamic to handle properly with a static /dev (think of plugging in USB
sticks, for example).

-- 
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Conventional memory has to be one of the most UNconventional
architectures I've seen in a computer system.

-- 
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com


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