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Re: /etc/profile should include sbin in PATH



Julian Stoev <j.h.stoev@ieee.org> writes:

> For users who don't know how to do do this, it's better not to have /sbin
> and /usr/sbin in the path.

Why?! The only rationale anybody has proposed for why this would be better is
that users wouldn't be confused by completions listing these programs. I think
it's obvious that it's a) ludicrous b) more confusing to not have programs you
expect in your path and c) a bad reason to be organizing the filesystem.

The FHS explains the motivation that users be able to survive without /sbin or
/usr/sbin in their path. It does not require that /sbin and /usr/sbin actually
not be in their path.

By putting programs useful to non-administrators -- regardless of the intended
use -- in /usr/sbin we are violating the FHS, and we are screwing our users.

> BTW, programmers, network engineers and such are not "normal users"... :)

Not in my distribution their not.

-- 
greg


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