The User-Accessible Filesystem Hierarchy Standard [LWN.net]

The User-Accessible Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

Posted Apr 9, 2004 2:12 UTC (Fri) by raytd (guest, #4823)
Parent article: The User-Accessible Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

This standard also fails to address the real issue. Unprivileged users who want to install software are not much concerned about where it is going to go.

I very seriously doubt that this "standard" was written for that type of user. It appears to me the target audience are users installing from sources.

I'm having difficulty understanding the resistance of system administrators (that have spoken up) to users building/installing software in *their* own sandbox. (That said, I agree that nobody should be sharing files or directories within their home directory. There are other/ better/safer ways to achieve the same result.)

If a particular user is *that* dangerous", I believe you have bigger problems than he or she installing software compliant to a "standard".

Everyone I work with is fairly trustworthy and everyone has, or can get, super-user priveleges to boot. Can someone share with me what environments warrant such distrust? I really want to understand.

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The User-Accessible Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

Posted Apr 9, 2004 14:34 UTC (Fri) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

(That said, I agree that nobody should be sharing files or directories within their home directory. There are other/ better/safer ways to achieve the same result.)

If those other ways require work as root, then I and many others working in places with grossly overloaded syadmins can't use them. It generally takes multiple years for the admins of the net at my workplace to act on a request to type a one-line command. Running stuff out of my $HOME, and providing scripts that let others use the same things, is the only practical option.

The User-Accessible Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

Posted Apr 9, 2004 21:03 UTC (Fri) by raytd (guest, #4823) [Link]

I was thinking of sharing data and/or code through /var/tmp, or something similar.

It just sounded to me as though some of these fellas have a full-time job thwarting crackers and script kiddies that have a *valid* login. I might expect that at a university, but I hope that's not the norm elsewhere.