Re: /usr/bin vs /usr/sbin

[Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>]

On Mon, Feb 22, 1999 at 03:45:43AM -0800, George Bonser wrote:
> On Mon, 22 Feb 1999, Joseph Carter wrote:
>
> > > Sbin is for system run binaries, daemons, etc.  This sounds appropriate here.
> >
> > sbin is for STATIC binaries.  For some reason none of the Linux dists
> > (unless slackware does and the knghtbrd package has a memleak) actually
> > use it as designed.
> >
>
> Uhm, I have always been taught that sbin is for things used by superuser.
> Things the sysadmin or system needs but that you want out of the general
> user's path.

That is the more correct usage. On some systems, things in /sbin are
static (namely sunos/solaris) since /lib is actually a link to /usr/lib
and unmounting /usr would disable regular programs, but these same
systems don't have static programs in /usr/sbin. Since we have an
actual /lib and /usr/lib we don't have this problem. I think the
generally accepted use is /sbin for system critical commands needed in
a "failsafe" mode (single user), and /usr/sbin for slightly less
important administration commands.