[haiku-development] Re: RFC: /usr symlink?
- From: Ryan Leavengood <leavengood@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 22:05:18 -0400
On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 9:21 PM, Alexander von Gluck IV
<kallisti5@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> mmadia pointed out this was discussed previously:
> //www.freelists.org/post/haiku-development/usrbin
OK, this has inspired a rant:
I'm sorry guys, all the arguments in that thread are unconvincing, and
amount to nothing more than "Haiku does this a certain way, and that
is it, no ifs, ands or buts and no compromising."
Having to "port" shell scripts which use /usr/bin/env is a big waste
of time. Don't you purists think we have enough work already???
Haiku is not Unix, but it has a very Unix-like shell and terminal, and
has many Unix commands, and is pretty darn POSIX compliant. Lots and
lots and lots and lots of shell scripts use the /usr/bin/env "trick."
It works on Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD and probably just about every
other system except plain Windows (I'm sure it works in Cygwin.)
You really want to argue against ONE SIMPLE SYMLINK??? In reality no
one will ever notice it and, frankly, it can even be automatically
hidden in Tracker if you guys are so bothered by it. As if adding usr
will confuse people as compared to all the other Unix like directories
in the Haiku root: bin, boot, dev, etc, tmp and var!!!
In case you can't tell, I support adding this symlink, because I'm a
pragmatist, and like to get things done, and having shell scripts not
work because of this has annoyed me again and again and again and
again on Haiku. No upstream would accept a patch which changed this,
so it just means a permanent "Haiku branch" of whatever software you
are talking about. That is stupid.
And I don't want to hear "well just add it to your own Haiku." No,
that is not a solution. Because inevitably I will expect other people
to make use of things I've made, and it is stupid to have to tell them
"If you are on Haiku, please create a symlink from /usr to
/boot/system, before you can actually use my script."
Lastly, let's address the argument that this "degrades the purity of
the Haiku file system layout." You mean the layout that has been
completely changed around and made quite complicated by package
management? The layout that already has FIVE other three-letter
Unix-derived directories at the root? Sorry that argument is now out
too.
In case you can't tell, this is one of those things that has really
annoyed me and touches on overall issues of Haiku trying to be
different so much that it becomes damaging.
--
Regards,
Ryan
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