Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2000 16:09:49 -0400 From: "Andresen,Jason R." <jandrese@mitre.org> To: j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: unix filesystem structure Message-ID: <3990690D.F62B9EFD@mitre.org> References: <20000808202239.A21332@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
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j mckitrick wrote: > > is there any advantage to the unix filesystem structure, keeping all > binaries together, all docs together, all config files together, etc, rather > than the modern method of keeping all the parts of a given application > together? Lets count the ways: 1. Managable path lengths. When you make new directory trees for everything you have to add a new path argument for each new binary you install, and the path quickly grows to unmanageable lengths. The other option is to simply not have the applictions in the path, but then it is very difficult to pipe data around as you always have to specify the full path to every application (extremly tedius). 2. Simplicity: you usually know where to look for a certain type of file, be it a non-critcal binary that came with the system (/usr/bin) or a non-X library that you installed yourself (/usr/local/lib), etc... 3. Promotes sharing of libraries, you only need to have one version of libXpm installed for the multitude of applications that use it. Although you can do this in Windows as well, programmers have a tendancy to stick the dlls in the same directory as the appliction, where they can't be used by other programs. 4. Increased consistancy: most applications follow the basic directory structure, so you know where stuff will be installed, unlike Windows where the programmers make up new directory structures for everything they write. Commercial applications are the worst, where you frequently enter the main directory only to see a dozen subdirectories with cryptic names and no sign of an executable anywhere. Thankfully under Windows, most people don't notice this because they only use the start menu. There are other reasons as well, but I think these should be enough. -- _ _ _ ___ ____ ___ ______________________________________ / \/ \ | ||_ _|| _ \|___| | Jason Andresen -- jandrese@mitre.org / /\/\ \ | | | | | |/ /|_|_ | Views expressed may not reflect those /_/ \_\|_| |_| |_|\_\|___| | of the Mitre Corporation. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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