Re: where do NEW packages go?
On Sun, May 19, 2002 at 12:37:35PM -0400, Joey Hess wrote:
> Happily we can override the FHS in policy.
That's what I figured. It's so low on my personal todo list though, as
it is only a cosmetic change, that I can hardly see it down there.
Fixing the FHS directly has some appeal, too, though. Not sure which is
harder to change ;)
> see a policy proposal from the Hurd people that explains why /hurd is
> needed instead of existing stuff like /boot or more generally
> FHS-acceptable stuff like /lib/something,
/hurd contains binaries that are usually not run on the command line
(because they don't provide much useful features except argument checking
and --help/--version output), but which are installed by users into the
filesystem for automatic startup when that part of the filesystem is
accessed (you can also start it immediately, before the access, when
installing it).
Say, you do
# settrans -a ~/debs /hurd/ftpfs ftp.debian.org:/debian/pool/main
# dpkg -i ~/debs/g/glibc/libc0.3_2.2.5-6.deb
which then transparently downloads and installs libc0.3 (when it is there).
The /hurd/ftpfs thing is a translator. It's a component of the Hurd system,
a weird cross between a user program program and a system component, started
automatically, but on the users behalf. You don't want to hide translators in
/libexec (or even /lib/hurd), because they are not executables started by
the system without user interaction. You don't want them to be visible
in /bin because running them on the command line the normal way fails with
"Must be started as translator." (actually, it is possible to have an
executable to be a runnable program and a translator, that would be a
cross over and should probably be installed in /bin and linked to in
/hurd, or the other way round).
/hurd contains the user space part of the Hurd system. It is not kernel or
boot stuff (although some translators are started at boot time as well), nor
is it a standard Unixish program or other file. That's why translators get
a new directory.
/hurd is what is between the C library and the microkernel. It has no
equivalent in any type of traditional Unix.
Thanks,
Marcus
--
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' Debian http://www.debian.org brinkmd@debian.org
Marcus Brinkmann GNU http://www.gnu.org marcus@gnu.org
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de
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