From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: jrvalverde@cnb.csic.es (Jose R. Valverde) Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2012 12:12:14 +0100 Subject: [TUHS] Understanding the /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin Split In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20120201121214.55c73577@cnb.csic.es> On Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:16:17 -0600 "A. P. Garcia" wrote: > http://www.osnews.com/story/25556/Understanding_the_bin_sbin_usr_bin_usr_sbin_Split I think this is typical misunderstanding of modern-day newcomers. The main problem to me seems to be that they think of UNIX (and Linux) as a Windows PC, which it isn't (and they even do not understand the Windows PC itself). The fact that at some point people was strained by disk space (and it has nothing to do with Ken or Dennis or disk availability) only means they had a pressure to split contents, and unless anyone was a moron, everyone would do it in a similar rational way. A rational way in the times meant adapting for the times' needs, and by then UNIX was a multi-user OS. So, beyond the point of filling up a disk (and that's the point for the partition system) there was a need to ensure you could separate user data from system data: adding user programs or data to a separate space (disk, partition, whatever) ensured the system space was not filled and the system would not become unusable. That was the real reason for /, /usr, /tmp and /var as standard partitions for most of us, not the availability of new disks. And the same is valid for separating system-specific binaries from general users. When disks came it would be handy to move a partition to a separate disk, but the need itself has nothing to do with the availability of extra disks. This is something obvious to anyone maintaining a multi-user server, only presumptuous single-user windows toyers think they know better. Even now when I get a user asking to set up a new computing server, their first query is how to separate system from users and scratch space. Any power user has filled his own system once and knows the risk. They also know they can cope with their own system and files. And they all know they cannot in a shared environment where they cannot control other users' files. Point is, the very first idea that occurs to any sensible being when facing a multiuser system is how to separate contents safely. That Ken and Denis did the obvious thing (as many of us did at the time --I remember having a /usr/local on my machines years before it was commonplace use) only speaks of their common sense (and the ignorance or lack of common sense in complainers). This is still valid in the times of petabyte disk arrays, ACLs, quotas, queuing systems and all what nots. Even more so in these large installations (I have witnessed multi-TB scratch files in jobs, filling a supercomputing installation and requiring operator intervention to avoid stopping the work of all other users). And so on, I could rant all day arguing why this was the obvious approach to many problems then, and often now too. So, to me, this looks more like a case of "reintrepreting and twisting the facts to justify untenable beliefs" instead of trying to understand what actually happened and why. Like saying the wheel was invented only to make carriages and that we keep using carriages (instead of say helicopters) just because of tradition and "bureaucrats" instead of accepting that there were many needs and when the wheel came it was -and still is- the obvious solution to most of those problems (among them carrying loads in carriages). j -- EMBnet/CNB Scientific Computing Service Solving all your computer needs for Scientific Research. http://bioportal.cnb.csic.es http://www.es.embnet.org