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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!como.dpie.gov.au!news.gan.net.au!act.news.telstra.net!news.telstra.net!psgrain!iafrica.com!bowl.news.pipex.net!pipex!rill.news.pipex.net!pipex!news.mathworks.com!EU.net!main.Germany.EU.net!Dortmund.Germany.EU.net!Uni-Dortmund.DE!vestein.arb-phys.uni-dortmund.de!not-for-mail From: wb@arb-phys.uni-dortmund.de (Wilhelm B. Kloke) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: How to link /bin (and /sbin) dynamically? Date: 16 May 1997 10:54:57 +0200 Organization: Inst f Arbeitsphysiologie Dortmund Lines: 46 Message-ID: <5lh7d1$l47@vestein.arb-phys.uni-dortmund.de> References: <y7zyb9f26wi.fsf@hzsbc259.nl.lucent.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: gisli.arb-phys.uni-dortmund.de Cc: Cache-Post-Path: gisli.arb-phys.uni-dortmund.de!unknown@vestein.arb-phys.uni-dortmund.de Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:41030 In article <y7zyb9f26wi.fsf@hzsbc259.nl.lucent.com>, Peter Mutsaers <plm@lucent.com> wrote: >Everything in /bin and /sbin is linked statically. Isn't this a waste >of diskspace and also doesn't it slow down things a bit? > >OK, I know it is more reliable, but OTOH if I have a boot floppy and >regular tape backups, I can always reinstall the system in case of a >filesystem damage or in case of a stupid error (like rm /usr/lib/libc*)... > >Even Solaris and SunOS have /bin and the most part of /sbin linked >dynamically. > >How can I change make world to do this? Is there a simple flag or do I >really need to modify /usr/src/bin/*/Makefile? > >Are there executables (such as /bin/sh) that really *need* to be >statically linked? First, you need to understand the reason why they are statically linked. It is because the dynamic libraries are not available before /usr is mounted. You are free to use dynamic linkeing, if you avoid separating / and /usr filesystems. The advantage of the traditional system is that a small / filesystem kann easily be distributed or backed up using just direct copy (dd). I used to back up this layout by putting gzip into /bin. Then I dd'ed the / partition onto tape and tar.gz'ed the /usr filesystem after this onto the same tape. So I was able to backup my whole Ultrix system living on 160MB rd54 disk onto *one* 90MB TK50 tape. For the waste of space, personally I would like to see some other solution. Have really debloated /bin and /sbin directories, without NLS support and anything else not used for file system maintenance. Overlay these minimal utilities with full functional ones in /usr/bin and /usr/sbin. If /usr/bin precedes /bin in your PATH (for simple users /bin is not needed anymore), you have a perfectly working system. -- Dipl.-Math. Wilhelm Bernhard Kloke Institut fuer Arbeitsphysiologie an der Universitaet Dortmund Ardeystrasse 67, D-44139 Dortmund, Tel. 0231-1084-257 vormittags -- Dipl.-Math. Wilhelm Bernhard Kloke Institut fuer Arbeitsphysiologie an der Universitaet Dortmund Ardeystrasse 67, D-44139 Dortmund, Tel. 0231-1084-257 vormittags