From: michael@gandalf.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (Michael Haardt) Subject: Re: Linux File System Document Revision 1.0 Date: 12 Mar 1992 20:04:33 GMT
From article <4591@mccuts.uts.mcc.ac.uk>, by zlsiial@uts.mcc.ac.uk (A. V. Le Blanc):
> I was involved in the discussion which produced this document,
> and I wish to bring up in this forum a topic which I discussed
> there.
What is the intended purpose of this document? I could think of a few:
- A guide for people how to install Linux
- A guide for people who write/port software for Linux (make install ...)
- A hopefully optimal filesystem structure
- A document about the well-known parts of the historical grown UNIX filesystem
I really don't know. I once thought about a major structure change,
because I never liked /etc and /usr/etc, or things like /usr/lib/tmac.
There are a few ways how bigger software packets like news or other
things could be installed, and the usual way is putting the manual pages
to /usr/man or /usr/local/man, the user commands to /usr/bin or
/usr/local/bin and the rest, if any, to a special directory, often
/usr/whoknows. Putting the user directories in /home is a change I
really appreciate.
> Before the flames begin to sear, let me say that I think this is
> a relatively small point, and that the rest of the document provides
> for a clean, intelligible system which should not be too alien to
> any experienced Unix user, and yet which should be easily grasped
> by Unix novices.
Yes, it is the familar structure.
Some people see Linux as a free POSIX/SYS V kernel, and that's all. I
think it is similar to MINIX in the way that you are free to experiment
with new ideas. So, what would you think of a new structure? One thing
I would like to find in it would be a relation between the filesystem
and the runlevel, another would be a better way to install bigger
software.
Any ideas? Would you appreciate a change or are you glad with the
existing structure? What do you like in it, what don't you like?
Michael