On Sep 30, 2013 9:31 AM, "Daniel Campbell" <li...@sporkbox.us> wrote: >
--- le snip --- > If the proposed solution is all binaries and libraries in the same > root/prefix directory, then why call it /usr? My question exactly. Why install to /usr at all, leaving /bin and /sbin a practically empty directory containing symlinks only? I mean, I have no quarrel with / and /usr separation, having had them in the same partition for ages... but why not do it the other way around, i.e., put everything in / and have /usr be a container for symlinks? > It has little to do with > users if it's nothing but binaries, libraries, etc. In addition, would a > local directory still be under this, for user-compiled programs not > maintained by the PM? Or does that deserve a different top level directory? > > Then there's /opt, whose purpose I'm still not sure of. This is > strengthening the idea that something new should be thought up and > drafted. IIRC, it was supposed to contain third-party binaries, i.e., things not available in a distro's package repo. Thus, when one's tired of a third-party binary package, he/she can just delete the relevant directory under /opt, because the third-party package might not be uninstallable using the distro's package management system (if any). Of course, he/she might have to clean up the leftover crud in /etc, but those are usually small and can safely be ignored. Except perhaps startup initscripts. > Not necessarily by us at Gentoo, but *somebody*. If I was crazy > and knowledgeable enough I'd volunteer myself. > Rgds, --