dan wrote: > On Fri, Feb 05, 1999 at 08:19:19PM -0500, Mitch Blevins wrote: > > In foo.debian-user, you wrote: > > > I was looking around in the /bin directory, and there are several > > > duplicate files installed there. For example, grep, fgrep, and egrep are > > > all the same file. The program checks to see how it was called to > > > determine what to do. > > > > > > Shouldn't files like egrep and fgrep be symbolic links to grep, and same > > > for any other program like this? > > > > > > Should bug reports be filed for these? > > > > > > Please CC to me, as I'm not on the list. > > > > I only have egrep and fgrep in the /bin directory. > > Could you please send the output of > > 'dpkg -S /usr/bin/egrep' > > and > > 'dpkg -S /usr/bin/fgrep' > > so that we can identify the offending package. > > > > (and any other duplicate binaries you find) > > > > -Mitch > > Here's the output that confuses me: > > $ dpkg -S grep | grep bin > gzip: /usr/bin/zgrep > grep: /bin/egrep > grep: /bin/grep > grep: /bin/fgrep > gzip: /usr/bin/zegrep > unzip-crypt: /usr/bin/zipgrep > gzip: /usr/bin/zfgrep > rgrep: /usr/bin/rgrep > > With the output of the ls commands here, note the sizes of the files. I have > actually checked, and the files are identical except for their names. > > $ ls -l /bin/*grep /usr/bin/*grep > -rwxr-xr-x 3 root root 75728 Apr 27 1998 /bin/egrep > -rwxr-xr-x 3 root root 75728 Apr 27 1998 /bin/fgrep > -rwxr-xr-x 3 root root 75728 Apr 27 1998 /bin/grep > -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 12992 Jan 3 10:23 /usr/bin/rgrep > -rwxr-xr-x 3 root root 1375 Jan 27 21:51 /usr/bin/zegrep > -rwxr-xr-x 3 root root 1375 Jan 27 21:51 /usr/bin/zfgrep > -rwxr-xr-x 3 root root 1375 Jan 27 21:51 /usr/bin/zgrep > > The first three, egrep, fgrep, and grep are all identical files. The same is > true for zegrep, zfgrep and zgrep. > > This is seen again with gzip, gunzip, uncompress, and zcat. > $ cd /bin; ls -l gzip gunzip uncompress zcat > -rwxr-xr-x 4 root root 44972 Jan 27 21:51 gunzip > -rwxr-xr-x 4 root root 44972 Jan 27 21:51 gzip > -rwxr-xr-x 4 root root 44972 Jan 27 21:51 uncompress > -rwxr-xr-x 4 root root 44972 Jan 27 21:51 zcat > > Here is another instance: > $ cd /usr/bin; ls -l perl perl5.00404 suidperl sperl5.00404 > -rwxr-xr-x 2 root root 491820 Feb 3 02:58 perl > -rwxr-xr-x 2 root root 491820 Feb 3 02:58 perl5.00404 > -rwsr-xr-x 2 root root 493132 Feb 3 02:58 sperl5.00404 > -rwsr-xr-x 2 root root 493132 Feb 3 02:58 suidperl > > The files are identical except for their names. There are probably a bunch > of other packages that have this, too. Shouldn't there be symlinks instead > of having multiple copies of everything?
Okay, now I understand. I thought you meant that you had both a /bin/grep and a /usr/bin/grep. It seems to me that these should be symlinks. Maybe there's a valid reason for having them distinct *shrugs*. File a bug against the packages they are in and at least the issue will be addressed. -Mitch
