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Date:      Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:39:43 +0100
From:      Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Cc:        Da Rock <freebsd-questions@herveybayaustralia.com.au>
Subject:   Re: /usr/home vs /home
Message-ID:  <20120218123943.147a7842.freebsd@edvax.de>
In-Reply-To: <4F3F80FD.8070201@herveybayaustralia.com.au>
References:  <4F3ECF23.5000706@fisglobal.com> <20120217234623.cf7e169c.freebsd@edvax.de> <3D08D03C85ACFBB1ABCDC5DA@mac-pro.magehandbook.com> <alpine.BSF.2.00.1202172316230.11247@abbf.6qbyyneqvnyhc.pbz> <20120218112252.772c878b.freebsd@edvax.de> <4F3F80FD.8070201@herveybayaustralia.com.au>

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On Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:44:13 +1000, Da Rock wrote:
> BTW I was intending to put across the concept of /usr being user related 
> - anything a user may need or use; as opposed to / for the system 
> related stuff that keeps it running. Maybe I wasn't as clear as I had 
> thought... :)

There's lots of philosophy, tradition and vanished differentiation
in this field. The manpage "man hier" provides a good explaination
for the layout chosen for FreeBSD. However, there are questions
that may arise:

What kind of programs? Those called by users, by the system, or
by other programs (see libexec)?

What's the difference between /bin and /sbin, same for /usr/bin
and /usr/sbin? Could they maybe be merged when their functionality
is similar and they reside on the same partition (file system)
anyway?

The /etc directory - "editable text configuration" :-) - historically
also contained binaries like /etc/mount or /etc/GETTY. Depending
on its location, one can assume that it controls OS things only.
Wrong. In many cases, /etc/rc.conf also contains settings for
enabling services installed by ports. Even though FreeBSD can
use /etc/rc.conf.local (has been known in OpenBSD for non-OS
setup stuff), most things are found in the system-wide file.
But the corresponding start scripts are in /usr/local/etc/rc.d.
Why no /usr/local/etc/rc.conf? But as rc.conf is just a file to
associate variables with names, there's no problem if they are
defined, but not used (e. g. in a limited system state after
encountering a problem)...

Luckily, most software installed from ports keeps its settings
out of /etc and uses /usr/local/etc instead. Having _known_
locations for settings makes it easy to back them up.

How about X on desktops? /etc/X11 is the common location for
config files (if used), but per deduction, they should be in
/usr/local/etc/X11 as X is a port, not a part of the OS. What
about the configuration of xdm? Why isn't it stored in some
/usr/local/etc subtree, but instead /usr/local/lib/X11/xdm/
is used?

This short list is just to mention the loads of philosophy
hidden within the system. :-)



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...



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