sbin was once used to put statically link binaries needed when the shared
libs are not usable.
so when the system performed on critical situations, it was always
possible to use things from this directory.
It appears that statically linked binaries were always system things
(fsck, mount, ...) that one would need to recover from critical
situations.
Putting some of these statically linked stuff in /sbin, /usr/sbin and
/usr/local/sbin made sens in these days.
Nowadays sbin is used for "system binaries" and guessing were to put some
binary is just a matter of preference.
Note that ordinary users (non administrators) do not have sbin
directories in their PATH (although they can since they have right to do
so).
hope this helps
-----Original Message-----
From: Maurice Hendrix [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 1999 10:12 AM
To: '@MailingList: Linux-Newbie'
Subject: bin or sbin
Next question: It is not entirely clear what the difference is between
executables in the bin or the sbin directories. The documetnation I have
says executables go in the ./bin (/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin)
directories
and system executables go in the ./sbin (/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin)
directories. I'm still lost. What is the *real* difference? What goes
where
and why?
--
Maurice Hendrix
snailmail: Fuji Photo Film BV Standard disclaimers apply
Dept. P1LPI
attn. M. Hendrix
PO Box 90156
5000 LJ Tilburg
phone: +31 13-579 1370 or fax: +31 13-579 1385
- Still 21 months to go until the next millenium...
