sbin again (was Re: Who is a Debian user?)

[Richard Kettlewell <rjk@greenend.org.uk>]

Wouter Verhelst <wouter@debian.org> writes:

> This has been brought up over and over and over and over and over
> again. People are tired of it, that's all. The reason that
> traceroute is in /usr/sbin is simple: FHS defines that "user tools"
> belong in /usr/bin, while "administrator tools" belong in
> /usr/sbin. However, FHS does *not* clearly define what
> "administrator tools" are, and _that_ is the problem.

I for one would be less tired of it if it wasn't necessary to keeping
countering the same falsehoods.  For instance, the FHS -does- state
what files belong under .../sbin and what under .../bin:

    Deciding what things go into "sbin" directories is simple: if a
    normal (not a system administrator) user will ever run it
    directly, then it must be placed in one of the "bin" directories.
    Ordinary users should not have to place any of the sbin
    directories in their path.

Ordinary users do run traceroute; I've seen them do it.  QED.

Personally I worked around the intransigent maintainer by forking
traceroute for my own system, and fixing some other bugs while I was
at it.

-- 
http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/