[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
Re: [PLUG] directory conventions
On Tuesday, January 28, 2003, at 03:54 PM, gabriel rosenkoetter wrote:
On Tue, Jan 28, 2003 at 09:07:21AM -0500, Christian Hedemark wrote:
Calling AIX a UNIX is a stretch, too. :-)
Huh? How? It's a direct member of the family tree. Far more valid
than calling Linux a Unix.
For years it's been a standing joke -- the only reason that AIX isn't
the worst version of Unix available is because HP-UX is.
Ultrix was the last "pure BSD" version that wasn't called BSD.
Solaris is more System V than BSD with no OSF added. The old Sun OS was
similar to BSD until Bill got cosy with IBM and the resulting Solaris
looked mostly System V-ish.
Digital Unix, aka Tru64 Unix was the only version of Unix to ever
actually implement the OSF code. Other vendors added features to make
their proprietary versions "OSF Compliant"
OSF/1 itself was a collection of technologies implemented from
different vendors and OS styles.
And then BSD itself isn't very BSD like any more. And Darwin is?
As for "direct member," it depends upon which branch and how much
incest you want to allow for - USG vs OSF and all that good stuff. Now
AIX is more System V than BSD with a measure of OSF thrown in.
All of these changes have occurred both because of evolution as well as
license and copyright issues.
As ATT used to say ... Unix(tm) is a 5 letter word.
Linux is most definitely NOT a Unix(tm)... because Unix(tm) is a brand
name and there is an entire suite of tests which must be passed before
one gets to pay the fee that allows one to call your thing -- Unix(tm).
And you'll never catch Linus trying to pretend it is a Unix or calling
it one.
Some go so far as to claim -- if it doesn't respond to "man hier" it's
not "really" Unix. (hier is the description of the "Standard file
system hierarchy").
Over the years the "generally accepted" file system usage conventions
have become VERY OS dependent. There really hasn't been any kind of
seriously consistant usage for many years. /var never existed until Sun
started using it.
But people thought it was a good idea and have continued to do so.
Long ago, /usr/users/<userid> was once where everybody's home directory
was placed. But disks were too small and people kept too much crap
around... /home/<userid> became popular. And then people discovered
that even /home didn't scale for squat on a system with 10 or 15
thousand timesharing users, so we moved to /home/<letter>/<userid>.
/local is a new invention. Before that it was /usr/local and before
that it didn't exist -- you just installed your software right
alongside the vendor's in the same directories. I doubt that the
/usr/local install convention was common before about 1995. (I forget
when use of Larry Wall's "configure" became widespread and effectively
enforced the new standard.)
And then of course is /usr/opt... :) [Dammed if I know, some vendors
use it some don't.]
In short, it's whatever floats your boat.
Next we can go argue Unixness on Computer Science grounds -- is a
micro-kernel or a monolithic-kernel "Unix."
By the way, I counted 723 on the head of my pin...
T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
# Beige G3 - Rev A motherboard - 768 Meg
# Flat-panel iMac (2.1) 800MHz - Super Drive - 768 Meg
# PWS433a [Alpha 21164 Rev 7.2 (EV56)- 64 Meg]- Tru64 5.1a
magill@mcgillsociety.org
magill@acm.org
magill@mac.com
_________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion -- http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug