Directory structures in the future and other things I want.

[Nils Philippsen]

On Fri, 2008-03-28 at 12:04 -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:

> I still think all reasons for having a separate /sbin are obsolete and 

See my comment about tab-completion in another mail. If somebody wants
to clutter their PATH, more power to them, but it doesn't make sense for
most normal users.

> Meanwhile, changing the default user path fixes 
> the worst parts of the problem.  But then there is the alias business 
> too...  Should someone who normally uses "su -" but forgets and does 
> "su" be surprised to learn that rm really doesn't ask if you meant to do 
> that?

Having /sbin and /bin doesn't have a thing to do with that, the
difference is that in root's environment, "rm" is aliased to "rm
-i" (get your facts straight before pulling examples out of your hat).
For what it's worth, that inconsistency between normal and root user use
of "rm" should go away, the sooner the better. Either have it
second-guess the user all the time or never. I'd prefer never because
due to this alias, using "rm -f" has become so common-place that it's
not funny anymore. There's a lesson to be learnt from Windows' mistakes:
If users always get asked if they want to do something they initiated in
the first place, they're much more likely to always confirm whatever
comes their way.

Nils
-- 
     Nils Philippsen    /    Red Hat    /    nphilipp at redhat.com
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary
 Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."  --  B. Franklin, 1759
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