Signal/noise ratio on -devel
OK. Our humble not-yet-a-developer-due-to-new-maint-reorg, having
finished exams, packs up and drives home for the holiday. So I get
back, relax for a while, do non-computer stuff, etc etc. about 1:30 AM
I decide to fetch my email. Hmm. 61 messages. Either I've just become
incredibly popular, or they're bickering about something on
debian-devel again. Sure enough...
Greg Stark writes:
> /etc/profile currently sets the PATH to:
> PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games"
> It should include /usr/sbin and /sbin in the PATH.
Now, you'd have to be pretty thick not to expect a flamewar here. Sure
enough, 21 followups. And I was not even gone for a *day*. I decided
to delete them all without looking...
Honestly, I think this collective behaviour is really begging the
question. *What* in the world is so important about our distribution's
default setting on an issue of strictly convenience? put PATH=whatever
in your .profile and be done with it. Besides, Greg, my shell is
/usr/bin/rc; you'll have to change /etc/login.defs and/or
/etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config instead. Assuming, of course, my .rcrc doesn't
just set $path. ;-)
It reminds me of the big debate about nicing cron jobs, and whatever
preceded that one, and so on. I really don't give a crap what the
default setting of XYZ is in Debian, because if I have some odd need
or perverse preference, i'll change the setting. I don't want to turn
this into a RedHat flame-fest, but if you want RedHat, you know where
to get it.
I don't think Greg is maliciously (or humorously) trying to troll us,
but we're feeding him nonetheless. It looks stupid and juvenile to
outsiders. And when people who subscribe to -devel to try to get
*information* have to constantly filter out this stuff, it eventually
makes them fed up (say, to the point where they write some rant to
-project).
As for the "issue", yes, I think sbin is stupid, but i'd go to the FHS
people if i was on a campaign to change it. *sigh*.
--
Decklin
Written with Debian GNU/Linux - http://www.debian.org/
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