GoboLinux - Fun with File System Hierarchy [LWN.net]

GoboLinux - Fun with File System Hierarchy

Posted Jan 22, 2004 11:33 UTC (Thu) by ptr (guest, #5885)
Parent article: GoboLinux - Fun with File System Hierarchy

I do not think that the Programs directory structure is more *logical* than the standard hierarchy (except the names themselves, maybe, for linux the "usr" directory naming is rediculous and purely historical).

The standard structure is a lot more useful for doing backups. Their /Programs structure is a lot more useful for doing package management within the file system.

What I like about GoboLinux is that they try to provide multiple views of the file system via symlinks (all executables are accesable via /System/Links/Executables). That makes for example backups easier. Unfortunately, sometimes symlinks themselves contain information in their target, thus you cannot simple use "follow symlinks" in your backups.

What I really dislike is the /tmp directory (look at all the security problems, etc.). A normal (non-server) user process should really avoid writing anywhere but into the home directory and use a private tmp storage in there. An even a server process or X11 should rather use something in /var.

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GoboLinux - Fun with File System Hierarchy

Posted Jan 22, 2004 11:49 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Unfortunately, sometimes symlinks themselves contain information in their target, thus you cannot simple use "follow symlinks" in your backups.

Well, no: you really have to back up the symlinks *as symlinks*, and similarly for all other non-regular filetypes (or the first time you hit a non-connected FIFO, or /dev/zero, you'll never come back).

Every halfway-competent backup program does this, even `cp -a'.

GoboLinux - Fun with File System Hierarchy

Posted Jan 22, 2004 17:40 UTC (Thu) by rschroev (subscriber, #4164) [Link]

If I understand you correctly, that would mean you cannot backup your config files by making a copy of /etc - you would end up with a bunch of symlinks instead of the data itself.

In that case, I prefer the standard way of doing things. The names could have be chosen better and the difference between the purpose of some directories is sometimes not clear, but I like how it separates static data (binaries, documentation) from configuration and from other variable data and from user data.

GoboLinux - Fun with File System Hierarchy

Posted Jan 23, 2004 21:34 UTC (Fri) by Ross (subscriber, #4065) [Link]

I also dislike "etc". But I do like the consistancy of using 3 letters and
only lowercase. I think a better choice would have been "cfg". And I
agree about "usr". Something like "sys" would have been a nicer name.

But oh well, it's not bad enough to warrant such a large change. And the
Gobo names will also be disliked by some. I really didn't like the
arrangement of the "System" folder nor did I appreciate the mixing of
non-chaning files like binaries and configuration files in a single
"Programs" directory. One nice thing about /usr is that there is really
no need to modify anything in it. You don't need to back it up because it
should consist of files extracted from packages.