Re: call for discussion: Standard paths for MiNT

[Stephen Usher <Stephen.Usher@earth.ox.ac.uk>]

>> The SYSV solution seems to have been promoted a few times now. Let me
>> just add that it may be worth to keep an eye how LINUX is doeing
>> things. Among other things, there will be a port to 68k machines at
>> some point, so beong compatible with that may be worth something.
>
>Excellent point! Let's join forces with the Linux 68k people here.
>Does somebody have the address for the Linux 68k mailing list?
>In general: Let's try to find out what the major UNIX's path
>structure is like. For HPUX, I can say that they are still BSD-like,
>but moving towards a V.4 structure gradually. Let's make a list!
>Quite obviously, we need some more information here.

Linux 68k hasn't got very far yet, it only works on a subset of Amigas and
then not in a state good enough to act as its own development environment.
I'll post the addess of the mailing list when another message arrives from
it. I've been monitoring it you see.

As for the directory structure for binaries, you merely have /bin->/usr/bin,
/usr/bin, /usr/sbin and /usr/local which contains hardly anything at all!

>> Later we need to decide where put other stuff. Everything not covered
>> by the standard should probably go into /usr/local, but since we are
>
>... or /usr/contrib
>
>> goeing the gnu way, what about a program like gzip? And if emacs is
>> goeing to be the standard editor, should it still reside in
>> /usr/local? There are a zillion question like these.

Easy... ANYTHING you wouldn't find in /usr/bin or /usr/ucb on a "standard"
Unix system goes under the /usr/local hierarchy. This means /usr/local/bin
is probably going to become the biggest binary directory in the end. :-)

Seriously, elvis, renamed to vi (unless i get a version of BSD VI I've got
ported :-)) and other such utils would go in either /usr/bin, /usr/ucb,
/usr/5bin or /usr/posixbin depending upon thier derivation. /usr/sbin would
hold system binaries such as init, getty and a copy of sh, everything
necessary for booting, at least to single-user. The rest of the stuff goes
where people expect it.. /usr/local/bin or, if X does appear, /usr/X11R*/bin.
G(un)zip would go in /usr/local/bin unless it were renamed (un)compress, in
which case it would go in /usr/ucb.

This allows people to set up thier paths to give them the environment they
most favour. eg. If someone wants ls to always give a single column output
unless they give the -C option then they'd put /usr/5bin before the rest. :-)

The question comes, however, do we want /opt and do we want all the
compilers in /usr/ccs? :-)

>Sure, but let's first get the general structure agreed upon, or we
>will get lost in details. We can decide such questions later.
>
>--clausb@hpbeo79.bbn.hp.com-----------------------------------------------
>Claus Brod, MDD, HP Boeblingen      Magic is real unless declared integer.
>--#include <std_disclaimer>-----------------------------------------------

Steve

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