Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 17:09:15 +0930 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Jon Hamilton <hamilton@pobox.com> Cc: mmercer@ipass.net, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: removing a.out executables found in /usr/sbin? Message-ID: <19990402170915.E413@lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <19990402073055.3F1F8155@woodstock.monkey.net>; from Jon Hamilton on Fri, Apr 02, 1999 at 01:30:54AM -0600 References: <19990402132258.V413@lemis.com> <19990402073055.3F1F8155@woodstock.monkey.net>
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On Friday, 2 April 1999 at 1:30:54 -0600, Jon Hamilton wrote: > > In message <19990402132258.V413@lemis.com>, Greg Lehey wrote: >> On Thursday, 1 April 1999 at 22:17:01 -0500, Michael E. Mercer wrote: >>> Hello all, >>> >>> I have found a few executables in /usr/sbin that are >>> a.out format...(at least that is what the command 'file' is telling >>> me) >>> >>> Is it feasible to delete these files with no impact??? >> >> That depends on whether you want to use them or not :-) >> >>> I would assume a 'make world' recompiled everything it needed >>> in ELF format, therefore any a.out format files would not be >>> needed?!?!?! >> >> I don't think they're from FreeBSD. If so, they would have been >> overwritten by new versions. > > Unless there _is_ no new version; /sbin/dset is a good example of > cruft that gets left behind after upgrading to 3.1, and there are > other examples as well. $ file /sbin/dset /sbin/dset: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (FreeBSD), statically linked, stripped $ uname -a FreeBSD freebie.lemis.com 4.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 4.0-CURRENT #135: Tue Mar 23 19:18:27 CST 1999 grog@freebie.lemis.com:/T/src/FREEBIE/src/sys/compile/FREEBIE i386 I suspect this is one of the things that people moved from one directory to another (typically from /usr/bin to /bin or /usr/sbin to /sbin). I've looked at my oldest machine and found no /usr/sbin/dset, but I did find a /usr/sbin/sysctl, which has been replaced with /sysctl. I consider this an obscenity to move things without warning people and without removing the old version on install, but to quote a core team member: > I think it is the responsibility of the sysadmin to clean out old > garbage. 2.2 installs a symlink (although that is broken and there > is a PR or two about it -- LN_FLAGS never actually worked), so there > should no problem there. 3.0 was for developers who know what they > are doing ;), so there should be no problem there. 4.0 is for > developers... > > login.conf and dotfiles put /sbin before /usr/sbin in $PATH, and no > one should put "." in $PATH, so the new version should always be > preferred. If you feel like putting in a PR, go for it. Greg -- When replying to this message, please copy the original recipients. For more information, see http://www.lemis.com/questions.html See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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