Re: sh(1) and ksh(1) default PATH

[tlaronde%polynum.com@localhost]

Le Wed, Aug 17, 2022 at 09:56:02PM +0000, David Holland a écrit :
> On Tue, Aug 16, 2022 at 08:59:13AM +0200, tlaronde%polynum.com@localhost wrote:
>  > But the argument "if something is modified, that"s the problem of the
>  > user" can be reversed: NetBSD provides utilities whose
>  > functionnalities it relies upon. So, by default, the system should use
>  > its utilities, the ones it has been tested with and expects. So base
>  > should always come first by default; user can modify this but in this
>  > case, he is on is own. The system is provided without anything in
>  > /usr/local/ so placing something in /usr/local is modifying the
>  > system. So for the core to still function, it has to be designed to
>  > ignore whatever is in /usr/local for its core functionnalities.
> 
> Except that the whole reason for installing e.g. bind or sendmail from
> pkgsrc is to replace the corresponding functionality in base.

But this is already taken care of at /etc/ level (I still use 
sendmail(8)) and the way it is now, one knows what the system uses as
the MTA/MDA for example.

I have to deal with the myriad of Linuces (because there is no such
thing as "Linux"; it is just a kernel) for kerTeX, and what I do
appreciate by comparison is that NetBSD is a _system_: it is a minimal,
coherent whole yet giving a functionnal base. It has rules (and thus,
there are always exceptions, but few). And this is due to your good 
work and the good work of the other NetBSD developers. Not every "OS"
around is a system (coherent).

Relying on pkgsrc to not have a package doing something wrong
(installing a base utility taking the place of a core provided one) by
letting /usr/pkg/{sbin,bin} take precedence other /{sbin,bin} and
/usr/{sbin,bin}, when comparing the size of pkgsrc, the complexity of
numerous packages, the contributed aspect of pkgsrc vs. NetBSD by
itself, seems to me unreasonable.

Make the common case fast: when a user adds functionnalities, software,
this is available because the utilities are placed in hooks (/usr/pkg/,
/usr/local) that are searched by default but finally. Overriding core
functionnalities is a very special case and needs to be a special
and thus more difficult case (it is not an ordeal; but the user has
to know a little and must take the responsability and the small effort
is the sign fo the responsability).

A little more than 2 cents,
-- 
        Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ polynum +dot+ com>
                     http://www.kergis.com/
                    http://kertex.kergis.com/
                       http://www.sbfa.fr/
Key fingerprint = 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89  250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C