Understanding the bin, sbin, usr/bin , usr/sbin split

[Denys Vlasenko]

On Thursday 09 December 2010 16:45, Rob Landley wrote:
> The /bin vs /usr/bin split (and all the others) is an artifact of this, a 
> 1970's implementation detail that got carried forward for decades by 
> bureaucrats who never question _why_ they're doing things.  It stopped making 
> any sense before Linux was ever invented, for multiple reasons:
...

> I'm pretty sure the busybox install just puts binaries wherever other versions 
> of those binaries have historically gone.  There's no actual REASON for any of 
> it anymore.  Personally, I symlink /bin /sbin and /lib to their /usr 
> equivalents on systems I put together.  Embedded guys try to understand and 
> simplify...

Another simplification:

I symlink [/usr]/sbin to bin. If a program shouldn't be runnable by a non-root,
it can easily be arranged by suitable mode in the binary. No need to have
separate directory for that.

-- 
vda