:: Re: [DNG] /usr to merge or not to m…
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Author: Olaf Meeuwissen
Date:  
To: KatolaZ
CC: dng
Subject: Re: [DNG] /usr to merge or not to merge... that is the question??
Hi KatolaZ,

KatolaZ writes:

> On Sat, Nov 17, 2018 at 09:14:06PM +0900, Olaf Meeuwissen wrote:
>
> [cut]
>
>>
>> # Those are a non-serious suggestion and a rethorical question, in case
>> # that didn't come across.
>>
>> So, I'm against a *forced* /usr merge. I hope Debian does the right
>> thing but if necessary, I would like to see Devuan correct the wrong.
>> However, let's focus on init freedom (and beowulf) first!
>>
>
> The current default in debootstrap from Debian is to merge /usr, so
> buster installs will have /usr merged. This is not a problem at all
> for Devuan atm, since we forked debootstrap and base-installer and can
> act there to put back the default to non-merged /usr in Beowulf,
> leaving the option to the user to choose otherwise.
>
> More choice == more freedom ;)


ACK. Just like to point out that Devuan might run into packages that
have already moved programs that really ought to be in /bin or /sbin
over to /usr/bin and /usr/sbin.

Image bash getting installed in /usr/bin/bash. With the merged /usr
scenario that's not a problem because /bin is a symlink to /usr/bin and
all you #!/bin/bash scripts will continue to work just fine. In the
non-merged scenario /bin/bash will not exist and all hell breaks loose.

Ditto for /sbin and /lib.

Now bash is an extreme example but there may be a few extra packages
that may need to be forked :-(

Alternatively, an usr-un-merge package could provide dpkg-hooks that
move things to there right place and/or add a symlink from one place
to the other. Just a thought.

Hope this helps,
--
Olaf Meeuwissen, LPIC-2            FSF Associate Member since 2004-01-27
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