Re: Intent To Split: netbase
Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org> wrote:
>
> Quoting the FHS:
> Deciding what things go into "sbin" directories is simple: If a normal
> (not a system administrator) user will ever run it directly, then it
> should be placed in one of the "bin" directories. Ordinary users should
> not have to place any of the sbin directories in their path.
> Note: For example, files such as chfn which users only occasionally use
> should still be placed in /usr/bin. ping, although it is absolutely
> necessary for root (network recovery and diagnosis) is often used by
> users and should live in /bin for that reason.
Well, the FHS is contradicting itself here. On one hand, it says that
ifconfig is required to be in /sbin, on the other, according to this
paragraph, since a user could ocassionally wish to run ifconfig to list
the interfaces, it has to be in /bin. Someone should bring this up on
the FHS list.
Blindly following a contradictory standard is only going to get us into
trouble later on.
Just to rephrase my main reason for not moving traceroute, it's a tool that
is in the same category as ping/ifconfig/route, i.e., it's a network
diagnostic tool. On Linux, ping has traditionally been in /bin while the
other three have always lived in /sbin and /usr/sbin, respectively. Unless
there is a very good reason (for the convenience of users who should really
be changing their PATH variable is not good enough IMHO), we shouldn't move
these things around as LOCAL scripts may depend on them.
Now if a later version of the FHS unequivocally stated that all these tools
should be in /bin or /usr/bin, and as a project we decide to do that, then
we can carry out such a change in a way not dissimilar to how things were
moved around when the FSSTND first came about.
--
Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 is out! ( http://www.debian.org/ )
Email: Herbert Xu ~{PmV>HI~} <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au>
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