Date: Fri, 15 May 2009 08:17:27 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> To: Manish Jain <invalid.pointer@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: How to move vi to /bin Message-ID: <4A0D1707.10203@infracaninophile.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <4A0D0FD6.4040107@gmail.com> References: <cb0fa7b70905130021t390bb560r4a1dd64ab3b2e79@mail.gmail.com> <200905142019.56242.mel.flynn%2Bfbsd.questions@mailing.thruhere.net> <4A0D0FD6.4040107@gmail.com>
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Manish Jain wrote:
> Mel Flynn wrote:
>> On Wednesday 13 May 2009 09:21:46 manish jain wrote:
>>
>>> I want to move vi to /bin so that I have an editor available in
>>> single-user mode.
>>
>> The only reason to need an editor and not have /usr and /var available
>> is to edit /etc/fstab. It is trivial to spot errors with /rescue/cat
>> and fix with /rescue/sed, without having to worry about a terminal.
>>
>> In all other cases:
>> fsck -p
>> /etc/rc.d/mountcritlocal start
>> /etc/rc.d/ldconfig start
>>
>> And one can use any editor one would want. Don't forget to export or
>> setenv TERM to cons25 from 'dumb'.
>>
>
> From all the discussion I have walked through on the issue of where to
> place vi, it does appear FreeBSD has a skewed policy on the issue. There
> are plenty of reasons you might need access an editor in single-user
> mode - editing fstab is just one. Having to use the workarounds
> suggested in place of vi is not so good, and manually moving vi to /bin
> is not simply a matter of 'mv /usr/bin/vi /bin/'.
>
> One of the things I would dearly like to see in a future release is vi
> being placed under /bin.
>
There is an alternative means of achieving the same effect which I have been
occasionally known to advocate on this and other lists: the all-in-one partition
layout. Simply put, when installing the system instead of creating separate /,
/usr, /var etc. etc. partitions, you create only two partitions: a swap area and
(covering all the rest of the disk) one big partition mounted at /.
This means that in single user mode, dynamically linked programs like vi(1)
are available as normal. It's easy to implement and it works well.
Cheers,
Matthew
--
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard
Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate
Kent, CT11 9PW
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