Re: RFD: Essential packages, /, and /usr

[Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>]

>>"Steve" == Steve Greenland <steveg@moregruel.net> writes:

 Steve> On 16-Jun-02, 22:04 (CDT), Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> wrote: 
 >> Having an explicit, separate documentation of technical things
 >> that has to be maintained, or else it slips out of synchronization
 >> with reality, is certainly not to be preferred to haveing a
 >> deterministic way of inferring such information.

 Steve> But it's not a reliable prediction. It's simply a repoort on
 Steve> the present situation. There's nothing to prevent things from
 Steve> being moved out of /bin (except those subject to the
 Steve> FHS).

	Except to break compatibility, and to change a public
 interface to the system.  Such changes are never made lightly, and if
 it is expected that debian developers exercise such piss poor
 judgment we may as well give up and migrate to another OS.

 Steve>  Additionally, a list of "these tools are guaranteed to
 Steve> be available before /usr is mounted" is not the same as a list
 Steve> of "these are the tools from Essential packages that are in
 Steve> /bin:/sbin", and need not be particularly fluid.

	I fail to see a technical reason behind this statement of
 opinion.  Any canonical list would require maintainence and perhaps
 central control, I see no reason why such ossification gains us
 anything. 

	If I have an early running package, I look at what I need in
 /bin and /sbin; and depend on the non-essential packages providing
 the tools. I also trust, and depend on, the competence of my felloow
 developers not to move things out.

 Steve> Because it's not reliable. At least some portion of it is
 Steve> subject to the random whims of the package maintainers (or,
 Steve> far more likely, the random whims of bug reporters and a
 Steve> package maintainer who is (understandably) unaware that a few
 Steve> of Debian's umpteen thousand packages rely on that particular
 Steve> binary being in /bin).

	If we have become the cess pit of such incompetence, we may as
 well give up, and no set of rules would stave off the mould and decay
 that shall inhabit the misasma that the OS  would have become.

	manoj
-- 
 "You can't get very far in this world without your dossier being
 there first." Arthur Miller
Manoj Srivastava   <srivasta@debian.org>  <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
1024R/C7261095 print CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05  CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B  924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C


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