On Tue, 28 May 2002, Bernd Sieker wrote:

# The first things I do when I have to do something in single user mode
# are usually fsck -p (unless I know the filesystem is beyond repair)
# and then mount /usr (and, if on a sepereate fs, /usr/pkg), then start
# tcsh. Not that much of a problem.

Gee, this looks like a familiar MO :).  My thought is that it's
essential to be familiar with the barest of tools (anyone else here
(younger than 28) who knows how to use 'ed' with any degree of
efficiency?  At all?).  Any sysadmin worth his salt will know how to use
ed, sh, fsck, yada yada ("yada yada" is reserved for when people come
in and demand to know when the system will be back because it crashed
in the middle of a p0rn--er, "network exploration session").

# like that. In German we say "Wehret den Anfaengen". One of the things
# that set NetBSD apart from all Linux distributions that I know is that
# you have a very sharp line between the core system, and user managed
# directories, even with hundreds of add-on-packages installed.
#
# I would like to always be able to depend on the fact that /bin, /sbin,
# /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /usr/lib and some more contain _only_ core system files.

Linux by comparison to NetBSD is something over which I can pour marinara
and call "lunch".

# This clear distinction has already been mingled with the default
# X11BASE, which is the same directory of the X11 core installation,
# which some might regard as part of the core installation, since
# sysinst allows to install it. I am thinking about setting X11BASE to
# something else to have a sharp line there, too.

This is one of the major selling points for me of NetBSD is the strong
division between core and non-core stuff.  My only beef is that if one
overwrites /var (before forgetting to save /var/db/pkg), one loses all the
pkg information.  Would it not make more sense to keep pkg information in
wherever, what is it, $LOCALBASE happens to be (according to /etc/mk.conf)?
[Okay, that pushes the oops out one level, but it also pushes it to a single
point of recovery -- fix the value of $LOCALBASE and it's all set.]

				--*greywolf;
--
NetBSD: Network Your World.