Nethack 3.4.3 [PSARC/2008/172 FastTrack timeout 03/11/2008]

[Bart Smaalders]

Joseph Kowalski wrote:
> Bart Smaalders wrote:
>> /usr/bin/ contains:
>>
>> gnect
>> gnibbles
>> gnobots
>> gnome-sudoku
>> gnotravex
>> gnomine
>> gnotski
> Thanks for the information.
> 
> It provides more justification that we are just giving lipservice to
> Linux familiarity.  We "just know better", more politely termed NIH.
> 
> Yes, Jim did talk about sorting by some arbitrary criteria.  As I
> said in my last mail, there are several camps around this and we
> will have this discussion again and again.  Its not the important
> issue, Linux familiarity is.
> 
> It is interesting to note, that the discussion often is about
> what (historically and somewhat well defined semanticall) "bin"
> something belongs in.  I seem to recall a lot of items which seemed
> to be fit in /usr/sbin (by the endorsed semantic) were proposed
> to be placed in /usr/bin, because that's where they can be found
> on Linux.

No.

We tried to come to some sort of closure on this when someone derailed
my nmap case, and articulate a clear set of rules... but it was insisted
upon that the case not set precedent.

As far as I'm concerned, the logic is simple:

1) if only root can use the command, it belongs in /usr/sbin which is
in root's default path.

2) If the command is generally useful, it belongs in /usr/bin.

> 
> Rules that can be applied on a situational basis, are not rules at all.

Yes.... and I remember vehement arguments that /usr/sbin was supposed
to have all system admin commands, all dangerous commands, etc.

Indexing commands by directory isn't very useful; it's only a single 
dimension.
What about X games vs curses games vs OpenGL games?

As we repeatedly discussed during the Enabling Serendipitous Discovery case,
placing commands in separate directories does very little good, and tends to
do harm.

- Bart


-- 
Bart Smaalders			Solaris Kernel Performance
barts at cyber.eng.sun.com		http://blogs.sun.com/barts
"You will contribute more with mercurial than with thunderbird."