[arch-general] About /usr/local/sbin -> bin move
Dear ArchGeneral List, First of all, congratulations for another brave step forward with the /*bin -> /usr/bin move. All my Arch boxes upgraded with no pain. But I've noticed that there has been some discussion about moving /usr/local/sbin -> /usr/local/bin. Beware! There are packages out there that are distributed as tarballs and install themselves on /usr/local. I don't know how frequent they are, but I've seen them. And if they happen to contain any file in /usr/local/sbin, when untarring, it will silently overwrite the symbolic link with the real directlry breaking any application that depends on it, and making future upgrades to `filesystem` impossible. Yes, it can be fixed simply running tar with the -h (--dereference) flag, but who will remember that? Just my 0.02€. Best regards. -- Rodrigo
On 3 June 2013 21:01, Rodrigo Rivas <rodrigorivascosta@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear ArchGeneral List,
First of all, congratulations for another brave step forward with the /*bin -> /usr/bin move. All my Arch boxes upgraded with no pain.
But I've noticed that there has been some discussion about moving /usr/local/sbin -> /usr/local/bin.
Beware! There are packages out there that are distributed as tarballs and install themselves on /usr/local. I don't know how frequent they are, but I've seen them. And if they happen to contain any file in /usr/local/sbin, when untarring, it will silently overwrite the symbolic link with the real directlry breaking any application that depends on it, and making future upgrades to `filesystem` impossible.
Yes, it can be fixed simply running tar with the -h (--dereference) flag, but who will remember that?
Just my 0.02€.
Tarballs can't really "install themselves". If they're being distributed with absolute paths, you shouldn't be untarring them to the root directory by default anyway, that's pretty much asking for trouble. Extract them to a sane directory and then install what you want to the system by hand.
Rodrigo Rivas <rodrigorivascosta@gmail.com> writes:
Dear ArchGeneral List,
First of all, congratulations for another brave step forward with the /*bin -> /usr/bin move. All my Arch boxes upgraded with no pain.
But I've noticed that there has been some discussion about moving /usr/local/sbin -> /usr/local/bin.
Beware! There are packages out there that are distributed as tarballs and install themselves on /usr/local. I don't know how frequent they are, but I've seen them. And if they happen to contain any file in /usr/local/sbin, when untarring, it will silently overwrite the symbolic link with the real directlry breaking any application that depends on it, and making future upgrades to `filesystem` impossible.
Yes, it can be fixed simply running tar with the -h (--dereference) flag, but who will remember that?
Just my 0.02€.
Were them source distributions you can (hopefully) build with some more careful options; it would be generally hopeless if only binary releases were provided. -- Carl Lei (XeCycle) Department of Physics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University OpenPGP public key: 7795E591 Fingerprint: 1FB6 7F1F D45D F681 C845 27F7 8D71 8EC4 7795 E591
participants (3)
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Chris Down
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Rodrigo Rivas
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XeCycle