[734] in SIPB_Linux_Development
Re: Try something new? (was Re: {/bin,/etc}/athena)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Salvatore Valente)
Fri Oct 7 03:03:29 1994
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 94 03:03:15 -0400
To: yandros@MIT.EDU, ghudson@MIT.EDU, linux-dev@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: "[727] in SIPB_Linux_Development"
From: Salvatore Valente <svalente@MIT.EDU>
I'm responding to a message of over a week ago. So sue me. Anyway,
Greg wrote:
(For the record, Derek was right about what I was suggested.)
Then I withdraw all my needless babbling. I have to real complaints
about making /bin/athena and /etc/athena real directories.
Actually, I'd still prefer not changing things, but I don't feel
strongly about it.
In general, I hate filesystem issues.
Me too. Let's avoid them.
Rel-eng has a pretty good idea of what needs to be on the root
partition and what can be shared, for instance. [ ... ]
then perhaps we should still go with this option.
Absolutely.
However, if the mood in DCNS is that the filesystem layout sucks and
should be reconsidered...
The general layout is fine. There are just some minor annoyances.
Rel-eng seems to have decided that "if the standard program is on the
root partition, then the athena version should be on the root
partition." Three examples: "login is in /bin, so xlogin should be in
/etc/athena." "csh is in /bin, so tcsh should be in /bin/athena."
"rm is in /bin, so delete should be in /bin/athena."
I hate this. I'd say just the opposite. That is: "if the standard
program is on the root partition, then we don't need the athena
version there." xlogin should certainly not be on the root partition.
(X is in /usr!) delete should not be on the root partition. (rc
scripts should not be "delete"ing files.) tcsh is not really needed
on the root partition, if you have csh there. Etc, etc, etc.
* The majority of Athena software should go in /usr/local. I
don't know where we got the idea that we were important enough to
warrant our own directory under /usr.
We _are_ important enough. (IMHO, some standards are way too stingy
about giving out /usr directories. I think /usr/athena is a wonderful
idea.) Even if I didn't like /usr/athena, I'd still say that we'd be
insane to not use it, since we'd break everything.
Otherwise, I agree 100% with Greg's points that /sbin is better than
/etc, /var/spool is better than /usr/spool, /var/vice is better than
/usr/vice, etc.
To sum it up, I'd like any one of these three options. (If anyone
suggests a fourth option, I will flat-out reject it without even
reading it. :-)
(a) Leave everything where it is now.
(b) Make /etc/athena and /bin/athena real directories, and put every file
in the linux-athena packages in exactly the same place as it is on a
real Athena workstation.
(c) Make /etc/athena and /bin/athena real directories, and put _most_ files
where they are on Athena workstations. Move some files from
foo/etc to foo/sbin, and move some stuff off the root partition.
But otherwise, keep files where they are on Athena workstations.
/usr/athena/bin will still work, as will -I/usr/athena/include and stuff
like that.
Have a nice day.
-Sal.
