I normally don't speak up either, but I'm of the same mind as Red Hat. To be blunt, as a sysadmin, I despise the concept of throwing *all* of a packages files under a single directory. It typically makes PATH variables a mess. I'm sure I could think of other annoyances about that approach, but I'm pleased that the FHS exists, now, and I'm glad to see Red Hat (others?) start to move in that direction. My basic view is that each package should fit well into the structure of the operating system. I'ld rather see config files in /etc/<tool>, transient data in /var/<whatever>, read-only stuff in /usr, etc. (that's et cetera, not /etc :-)). A package manager such as rpm makes it easy to find stuff. I half jokingly say that one of the first things I aim to do to any production system that I am given responsibility to maintain is 'rm -rf /usr/local'. I consider /usr/local for testing, getting something up and running quickly, just to try something out, for temporary use only. I put everything I possibly can into an rpm package. To be fair, I've spent at least the last four years digging into the depths of rpm and know it well enough to do that. Yes, /usr/local is the standard place things have been placed. But more and more I see the DESTDIR variable being added to autoconf/automake managed projects making it easy to build and install as if a package is going to be placed in one location, but temporarily installing it in the same heirarchy under $DESTDIR so that it can be neatly packaged and not sully up my system directories in the process. Hell, I even refuse to use a kernel unless I can put it into an rpm format. But again, to be fair, I've spent quite a bit of time learning how to unravel kernel*.src.rpm files, modify them, and build them with my own changes even while I sleep (or in lieu of sleep). Frankly, these views are why I will never use qmail until DJB lightens up on his restrictions. Mr. Bernstein may be good at security (and I highly respect his fight against restrictions on posting encryption research), but I don't think he has a good understanding of system administration. Who puts binaries in /var ?! Or for that matter, EVERYTHING? Ridiculous, IMHO. Sorry for the rant. I'm just a bit grumpy because of problems I found with evolution 1.0 last night. I'm opened to being convince of the error of my ways, but it'll take something I haven't heard before.
On Tue, Dec 04, 2001 at 01:26:55PM -0500, Paul Lussier wrote: > > In a message dated: Tue, 04 Dec 2001 13:19:09 EST > "Dana S. Tellier" said: > > > I normally don't pipe in, but in this instance I had a sudden > >thought. Where RedHat is coming from, MANY of their users are > [...snip...] > >People who've used only Windows and want to try "this Linux thing". > > Right, which is fine. Then why not put out a "RH for newbies" > version of the distro and charge a little more than the base distro? > > Ironically, RH is attempting to target the enterprise which actually > *does* have a lot of experienced Unix admins, and these practices of > assuming to "know what's best" and thinking for us are really > annoying a lot of professional sysadmins. > > >[snip] > > > > Well, I'd counter that by quoting the old adage about if common > >sense were so 'common', everybody'd have it. ;-) > > Touché :) > -- > > Seeya, > Paul > ---- > > God Bless America! > > ...we don't need to be perfect to be the best around, > and we never stop trying to be better. > Tom Clancy, The Bear and The Dragon > > > > ***************************************************************** > To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. > ***************************************************************** > -- -Paul Iadonisi Senior Systems Administrator Red Hat Certified Engineer / Local Linux Lobbyist Ever see a penguin fly? -- Try Linux. GPL all the way: Sell services, don't lease secrets ***************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *****************************************************************
