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

[Joseph Kowalski]

Danek Duvall wrote:
>> BTW: If nothing else, could you not overload the existing /usr/games with a 
>> new semantic? Now we are faced with somebody who is used to finding the
>> game executables in the familiar place and finding something else there 
>> entirely.
>>     
>
> So, for example, Ubuntu ships the nethack executable as
> /usr/games/nethack-console.  Gentoo installs it in /usr/games/bin/nethack.
> Fedora Core 8 ships it as /usr/bin/nethack.  Which of those are you most
> familiar with?
>
> There are loads of places in Linux where they're either inconsistent or
> just plain broken.  I don't think we have to slavishly follow someone else
> when they're clearly not leading.
>   
OK.

Perhaps I have taken this too far, maybe not, but this does make my doubt my
absolute statements.

I checked Ubuntu.  We know where they installed them.  (IMHO, its the 
directory
is the significant point, not the specific name).

I know where SunOS 4 installed them.  Maybe that's not familiar to 
anybody without
a Sun badge this decade.

I'm pretty sure that /usr/games is also where ucb installes them.

Debian is just as Ubuntu.  Why am I not surprised?

I thought this indicated that there was consistency across UNIX.  It appears
I was wrong.

You cite Gentoo: /usr/games/bin.  That's a new variation of /usr/games, 
but it
still seems familiar.

You cite Fedora Core 8 as using /usr/bin.  That's doesn't seem to have 
the familiarity
I was asserting and is consistent with your proposal.  (It seems that I 
didn't install
the games on any of my RedHat installations, but its probably a good 
guess that its
the same as Fedora.)

SuSE?  I don't have a clue.  Does anybody know?

Humm, what about the FHS/LSB, my favorite document....
>
>
>     Requirements
>
> The following directories, or symbolic links to directories, are 
> required in /usr.
>
> Directory 	Description
> bin 	Most user commands
> include 	Header files included by C programs
> lib 	Libraries
> local 	Local hierarchy (empty after main installation)
> sbin 	Non-vital system binaries
> share 	Architecture-independent data
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>     Specific Options
>
> Directory 	Description
> X11R6 	XWindow System, version 11 release 6 (optional)
> games 	Games and educational binaries (optional)
> lib<qual> 	Alternate Format Libraries (optional)
> src 	Source code (optional)
>
This is clear that /usr/games is optional.  I don't believe this is a 
requirement
of "if there are games, they  should be in in /usr/games".  Rather, I 
think this
is the reverse: "if there is a /usr/games, this is its semantic".  Since 
we have
a /usr/games ...

So, my question is "is there enough consistency to attempt to be 
familiar on enough
platforms?".  I'm now not sure, but it still seems to be enough 
consistency.

(I don't know what RedHat share numbers are, but by themselves they 
could make this
non-familiar for enough people - its about the number of eyeballs, not 
the number of distros.
RedHat has far more delgates at this particular convention...)

- jek3







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