On Mar 1, 2011 2:26 PM, "Oliver Tappe" <zooey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Hi there, > > when looking at the restructured folder hierarchy with respect to > find_directory(), I have realized that it has become quite a mess :-\ > > This is the current hierarchy (in the pm branch): > > boot > common > packages > contents > add-ons > apps > bin > develop > ... > settings > system > packages > contents > add-ons > apps > bin > develop > ... > > For starters, I wonder where /system should point to: currently, /system > points to /boot/system, but that folder just contains the 'packages' > subfolder. While correct in principle, it means that stuff like /system/bin > and /system/add-ons no longer work. I have no idea whether or not that is > going to be a problem with many legacy applications and/or scripts. > Generally I wonder, what's the purpose of /system anyway? > > Furthermore, I'm not at all sure what find_directory() should return for > some constants - this is what it does currently: > > B_SYSTEM_DIRECTORY => '/boot/system' > B_BEOS_SYSTEM_DIRECTORY => '/boot/system' > ... > B_SYSTEM_PACKAGES => '/boot/system/packages' > B_SYSTEM_PACKAGES_CONTENTS => '/boot/system/packages/contents' > > B_COMMON_DIRECTORY => '/boot/common' > B_COMMON_SYSTEM_DIRECTORY => '/boot/common' > ... > B_COMMON_PACKAGES => '/boot/common/packages' > B_COMMON_PACKAGES_CONTENTS => '/boot/common/packages/contents' > > Is that ok or should anything be changed? > What's the meaning of B_COMMON_SYSTEM_DIRECTORY? > > cheers, > Oliver > I have often wondered the point of having a directory like that at all. Why /system/packages and not just /system? This is reminiscent of Apple's inheritance of NeXT's similar /System/Library, which appears to serve just about as little purpose as a "packages" subdirectory of /system. (I think NeXT should have gone with /System and /Local or /Common and ditched the Library/ infix as it provides no value. Why are we making the same error?) What other things would be going in /system if not for packages/? -- Dustin L. Howett