[1999] in Athena Bugs
Re: hier(7) man page
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (probe@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Tue Mar 28 21:12:24 1989
From: <probe@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 89 21:11:52 EST
To: langz@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Cc: doc-bugs@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Lang Zerner's message of Tue, 28 Mar 89 15:37:31 EST,
Reply-To: Richard Basch <probe@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>
I just had a look at hier.7. Here are my comments:
/sys/*: not in the standard release: licensing reasons.
/tmp:
storage place for some temporary files
/usr/tmp
storage place for temporary files that have to stay longer than
1 day
/usr/adm
we don't have any of the ??acct files
/usr/games
on an NFS filesystem now
/usr/msgs
obsolete, but still there. has a message saying it's obsolete.
/usr/pub
a few tables (ie. ascii table). fairly useless overall
/usr/public
doesn't exist
/usr/spool
still valid, but the system maintainer must add the appropriate
files for a particular service
/usr/"wd"
now /mit/"wd" (user's home directory)
/usr/src
not there - licensing restrictions
missing:
/etc/athena
Athena mods: system management utilities (like /etc/*)
/bin/athena
Athena mods: useful user programs that also have to be around
at boot-time (like /bin/*)
/usr/athena
Athena mods: useful user programs (not needed at boot-time)
I doubt I have the time to draft a new man-page for it, but I can help
in supplying information about problems with the current one and help
out with some of the history of the directory hierarchy and the reason
that it is the way it is. (Of course, it may become obsolete in a
couple releases for other reasons).
Basic breakup:
/bin
User programs
This has not been changed much from Berkeley's distribution
Several of the programs that are not needed at boot-time have
been symlinked to the system packs.
/bin/athena
User programs added by Athena.
Required at boot-time
/etc
System maintenance and configuration files
Again, similar to Berkeley's
/etc/athena
Athena's additions (system maintenance and configuration files)
/usr/bin
More user programs (generally in all UNIX systems)
As distributed from UCB
/usr/ucb
Berkeley's additions to user programs
As distributed from UCB
/usr/man
Manual pages
/usr/spool
Storage directory of various I/O, ie. mail, printer,
time-delayed jobs ("at").
Most of these are not enabled on public workstations, thus the
spool directory is close to empty
/usr/adm
System logs: users and their logins, system accounting, etc...
/usr/crash
Storage place for crash dumps after the kernel panics abnormally
/usr/athena
Athena additions: user programs not needed at boot-time
/usr/{dict,doc,include,lib,man}
Not changed in functionality from UCB distribution
/usr/games
symlinked to /mit/games (NFS locker)
/usr/{hosts,msgs}
obsolete
/usr/ibm
utilities for IBM peripherals or I/O, ie. dosread (also on a VS)
/usr/prototype_user
default startup files for users (placed in their directoris at
account creation)
/usr/new
I don't really have a good description for this hodge-podge of
user programs. A lot of them come off USENET, and are used
widely (ie. patch and rcs). Some are third party (ie. mh)
/usr/pub
contains a couple of tables (ie. the ascii table)
This is not a complete list, but it has most of the directories. If you
care to talk to me about any details, as I said earlier, I'd be willing
to help. I just don't have time to draft out more than what I just did
above; though the above should get you well on your way... :-)
-Richard
