Understanding the bin, sbin, usr/bin , usr/sbin split

[Christopher Browne]

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 10:16 AM, Lennart Sorensen
<lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 07, 2012 at 12:21:35AM -0500, William Park wrote:
>> On Mon, Feb 06, 2012 at 09:43:09PM -0500, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
>> > I've heard that OS/X does something like: all a package does is add a
>> > directory, and populates it with all the "stuff", including any
>> > executables.  The package manager does not have to be intricate,
>> > policing shared directories.  Then the binary gets made accessible
>> > somehow.  Symlink?  Union mount?
>>
>> This would be a step in the right direction.  Each package should be
>> given a directory, and it can do whatever under it.  This would simplify
>> package management a LOT.  There is no need to share anything.  If you
>> want something, you know exactly where it is.
>
> Because obviously packages never include libraries that one would want
> to share and the linker need to know where is.
>
> In other words: What an awful idea.

It's a solution to certain, particularly simplistic, problems.

Those problems are fairly frequently occurring, notably with
non-Unix-like application monoliths such as office suits and web
browsers.  Indeed, those classes of applications tend to be
sufficiently grandly bloated that I have the suspicion that it might
be reasonable to statically link in the bloated library sets that they
require.  It's not obvious that this would worsen space consumption or
anything else too terribly materially, as they're already exceeding
grandiose.

Embrace the "non-Unix-itude", I say...

Notice that if this set of (cr)applications got spun off in this
fashion, it would make the attendant bloat that much more visible to
everyone, and not have packagers holding their noses, trying to force
these apps into the other procrustean beds.  There wouldn't need to be
a "Firefox for Ubuntu" and "Firefox for Debian" and "Firefox for Red
Hat" anymore :-).
-- 
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question, "How would the Lone Ranger handle this?"
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