Edit: Oh haha, this article was posted 13 years ago and there was a similar thread which is how I dug up that link... >>5944594
Speaking of things which are needlessly complex, I'm reminded of this classic post on the tortured history of the browser User-Agent header:
https://webaim.org/blog/user-agent-string-history/
Highly recommended!
https://itsfoss.gitlab.io/post/understanding-the-linux--usr-...
`man file-hierarcy` defines modern Linux filesystem layout.
https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/file-hierarchy.7.h...
[0]: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/thinking-makes-it-so...
char string[10000];
strp = string;
for (i=0; i<9; i++)
*strp++ = "/usr/bin/"[i];
p = *argv++;
while(*strp++ = *p++);
// string == "/usr/bin/foo"
execv(string+9, args); // foo (execv returns only in case of error, i.e. when foo does not exist)
execv(string+4, args); // /bin/foo
execv(string, args); // /usr/bin/foo
(FWIW, Fedora 17 was released in 2012.)
busybox in Alpine Linux has for example `ps` builtin. If you install ps with `apk add ps` to get the full version, it will remove the symlink for /bin/ps and replace it with the one you installed.
You need to read up on the purpose of busybox. It is not something that the kernel people has decided upon. It is an initiative of an group of people who needed some tools onto a single floppy.
/bin/ps on a Debian distro is 154522 bytes. The whole busybox in Alpine Linux is 804616 bytes and contains a whole lot more than just ps.
They didn't stop advertising Win98 support until sometime in early 2007.
Granted, Steam back then was a different creature than Steam now.
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20020605222619/http://www.steamp...
> merge-usr is a script which may be used to migrate a system from the legacy "split-usr" layout to the newer "merged-usr" layout as well as the "sbin merge".
> It is required for systemd ≥255 due to changes upstream, but it remains optional for other init systems.
Good grief. How does this end up as the top comment on HN of all places? I'll bet anything that this author also thinks that systemd is way too opinionated and unified and that the system needs a less coupled set of init code.
Edit to be at least a tiny bit more productive: the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard is about to pop the cork on its thirty second birthday. It's likely older than most of the people upvoting the post I responded to. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard
To wit: that's outrageous nonsense, and anyone who know anything about how a Linux distro is put together (which I thought would have included most of the readers here, but alas) would know that.
> This directory contains subdirectories which are used as mount points for removable media such as floppy disks, cdroms and zip disks. https://specifications.freedesktop.org/fhs/latest/media.html
/var is used for websites and databases, but defaults for most packages don't use /srv by default. (I have the feeling that /srv is relatively new.)
And I thought we just got over the systemd drama…
Also some more background info https://systemd.io/THE_CASE_FOR_THE_USR_MERGE/
Because it was /etc (and of course the root directory) where the files for system boot and system administration went in some of the Unices of yesteryear. In AT&T Unix System 5 Release 3, for example, /etc was the location of /etc/init, /etc/telinit, and /etc/login .
sbin is actually quite complex, historically, because there were a whole lot of other directories as well.
The 's' is for 'static' version of the explanation of the name of sbin is not actually supported by any 20th century Unix doco. The books on AT&T Unix System 5 (before which, things were in /etc) that actually give an explanation for sbin all say system binaries, or system administration commands; and none of them says anything about linkage.
The 'static link' story came from Linux people years afterwards. Here's Ian McCloghrie correcting this misconception in a Linux discussion back in 1993:
* https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.linux.development/c/EKzL...
I pointed out the origins of sbin some years ago.
* https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2019/02/msg00041.html