[...] > -1 This proposal puts a set of OSS utilities in > /usr/bin where > they become intermingled with core Solaris commands. > . It also > puts conflicting commands in /usr/gnu. This lets the > e user > choose between > Solaris versions 1st + Solaris-GNU versions 2nd > (PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/gnu) > and > Solaris-GNU versions 1st + Solaris versions 2nd > (PATH=/usr/gnu:/usr/bin) > > It does not allow for > Solaris versions 1st + User-Provided-GNU versions > ns 2nd > That is, if I download/configure/make my own version > n of the > GNU utilities, I am faced with either using them to > o the exclusion > of any Solaris versions (PATH=/myGNU:/usr/bin) or > r not using them > at all. There is no way for me to use the Solaris > s versions 1st > and my GNU versions 2nd. > > (I think a key aspect of this case is that it is > primarily focussed > on managing conflicting binaries. As a result, > the first example, > PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/gnu/bin, isn't actually fully > simplified--it is > equivalent to PATH=/usr/bin.) > I believe the issue raised concerns the provision > of a > /usr/local/bin/foo, and selecting its preference > on a per-command > basis against /usr/bin/foo and /usr/gnu/bin/foo. > It is true that > the path mechanism in Unix always chooses the first > executable found > in the list of paths given in the environment, > which leads to > relatively crude outcomes when considering > individual commands > implementations. The proposal attempts to utilize > the solution in > place for other command variant collections (UCB, > XPG4, XPG6). > Remediation is available to local sites by > placing a preferred > subset of commands and placing the path to that > subset ahead of the > default entries, or via omission of the SFW > package(s) delivering > conflicting functionality. This omission may > cause other, dependent > packages to fail installation. [...]
Why not avoid the problem by putting all the FSF stuff in /usr/gnu, and having an optional package of symlinks in /usr/bin which no other package with dependencies on the /usr/gnu stuff should require? That way, users could choose whether to have non-conflicting /usr/gnu commands added to /usr/bin, or whether to leave them out; rather than building their own directory of symlinks to non-GNU commands in /usr/bin and putting that directory ahead of their directory of self-built GNU commands. This message posted from opensolaris.org
