From owner-freebsd-current Sat Jun 6 06:24:03 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id GAA02144 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Sat, 6 Jun 1998 06:24:03 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from IAEhv.nl (root@iaehv.IAEhv.nl [194.151.64.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id GAA02112 for ; Sat, 6 Jun 1998 06:23:59 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from wjw@surf.IAEhv.nl) Received: from surf.IAEhv.nl (root@surf.IAEhv.nl [194.151.66.2]) by IAEhv.nl (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id PAA23237; Sat, 6 Jun 1998 15:23:58 +0200 (CEST) Received: (from wjw@localhost) by surf.IAEhv.nl (8.8.7/8.8.7) id PAA08967; Sat, 6 Jun 1998 15:23:58 +0200 (MET DST) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 1998 15:23:58 +0200 (MET DST) From: Willem Jan Withagen Message-Id: <199806061323.PAA08967@surf.IAEhv.nl> To: jkh@time.cdrom.com Subject: Re: lorder problem: aout vs. elf (and GNU Configure problem too) X-Newsgroups: list.freebsd.current In-Reply-To: <3555.897110276@time.cdrom.com> References: <199806052121.OAA04575@usr08.primenet.com> Organization: Internet Access Eindhoven, the Netherlands Cc: current@FreeBSD.ORG Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG In article <3555.897110276@time.cdrom.com> you write: >> My gut feeling would be to put variant symbolic links in, and use a >> dollarsign ("$") to designate a kernel variant keyword: >> >> ln -s "/usr/lib.\${\$imgact}" /usr/lib > >Yuck. That's gross and you know it's gross, so I won't even try to >argue the point. Why the gratuitous complication? Just accept $foo >or ${foo} as the usual convention and, if you're absolutely dead-set >against having the kernel grub around in the user's actual environment >for this information, have it look in a logical name table someplace >with a new sysctl()'ish API for frobbing it. Too bad sysctl(8) >doesn't allow one to add new variables dynamically when the system is >up, you could even use sysctl for this one. I do not want to debate the actual implemented syntax. But comming from Apollo Domain OS this "feature" was one the the first things I missed when going to "real" Unix. So I would really find this an enhancement to FreeBSD. Apollo Domain OS had three faces: BSD, SysV and Domain OS and depending the OStype ENV you set, you would get the different types of programma's lib's etc. This all due to the "variant symbolic links". I myself used it al lot to switch between several versions of home-made compiler-tools, and to maintain several versions of the /usr/local and /usr/experiment trees on one file server without all the hassle of redoing all links once a system would get upgraded. Now for the syntax, one would just do: ln -s '/usr/lib.${imgact}' /usr/lib So the file/link name would contain the expansion text. Too bad I don't really have the time to do serious programming any longer, as this would be fun to do. --WjW -- Internet Access Eindhoven BV., voice: +31-40-2 393 393, data: +31-40-2 606 606 P.O. 928, 5600 AX Eindhoven, The Netherlands Full Internet connectivity for only fl 12.95 a month. Call now, and login as 'new'. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message