Subject: Re: Reimplementing the /usr/contrib directory hierarchy
To: Igor Sobrado <sobrado@string1.ciencias.uniovi.es>
From: Andrew Brown <atatat@atatdot.net>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 01/02/2003 10:22:00
>Exceptions to this rule.
>
>Some packages that ARE NOT under the control of the NetBSD Foundation
>should stay in /usr.  Most important examples are GCC (gcc, g++),
>GNU roff, and others.  Common sense shows the packages that can be
>moved to /usr/contrib, but looking at the 4.4BSD/Lite filesystem
>hierarchy will clearly show how to proceed.

from examining my source tree, i see

    % ls crypto/dist dist gnu/dist
    crypto/dist:
    CVS     heimdal kame    krb4    openssl ssh

    dist:
    CVS      bind     cdk      ipf      ntp      tcpdump
    am-utils bzip2    dhcp     nawk     pdisk

    gnu/dist:
    CVS               diffutils         map-mbone         sendmail
    README.toolchain  gawk              mrinfo            tar
    autoconf          gettext           mrouted           texinfo
    bc                grep              mtrace            toolchain
    cvs               groff             postfix

i can't see how any of those (except for the ones i don't use :) would
be better served by putting them in /usr/contrib.  the only result i
can see is massive confusion and resentment.  anyone who wants to use
them will be happier finding them in /usr/bin, and anyone who wants to
know which tools are from whom can easily look in the source tree.  if
your intent is merely to separate netbsd controlled material from
non-netbsd controlled material, then in order for it to have an
effect, it must be a steadfast rule with no exceptions.  i'd be
opposed to moving lots of stuff.  i think it (whichever program we
decide to talk about) makes much more sense living where it already
is.

>/usr/contrib is the place where compression tools (except compress),
>shell script interpreters, and nmh reside.

it seems to me that there's not really that much that we could
reasonably put there.

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