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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.ysu.edu!news.cps.udayton.edu!news.engr.udayton.edu!blackbird.afit.af.mil!zombie.ncsc.mil!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!newsxfer2.itd.umich.edu!portc01.blue.aol.com!newstf01.news.aol.com!newsjunkie.ans.net!newsfeeds.ans.net!prodigy.com!darkstar.prodigy.com!davidsen From: davidsen@tmr.com (bill davidsen) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.networking,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: dynamic-vs-static linked /bin etc (was: Re: TCP latency) Date: 22 Jul 1996 18:36:18 GMT Organization: TMR Associates, Schenectady NY Lines: 37 Message-ID: <4t0hn2$1lcs@usenetw1.news.prodigy.com> References: <4paedl$4bm@engnews2.Eng.Sun.COM> <87k9w6g6u4.fsf@localhost.xs4all.nl> <31E9D0CC.41C67EA6@dy <slrn4uthl2.ma1.liam@sweetums.lab.nz.eds.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: darkstar.prodigy.com Originator: davidsen@darkstar.prodigy.com Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.networking:46083 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:24236 In article <slrn4uthl2.ma1.liam@sweetums.lab.nz.eds.com>, Liam Greenwood <Liam.Greenwood@nz.eds.com> wrote: | On Wed, 17 Jul 1996 20:28:58 GMT, Peter Mutsaers <plm@xs4all.nl> wrote: | > | > Yes, /bin/sh (a link from /bin/bash) is indeed dynamically linked. In | > fact on any Linux installation I know everything in /sbin and /bin/is | > dynamically linked. I stil think it is a waste of diskspace that this | > isn't true for FreeBSD; there is no need to link these statically | > as long as all shared libraries reside in /lib (on the root filesystem | > too). | > | Well, I'm going to (next time I get some time - say year 2010 :-( | make sure that _all_ the binaries I need to boot single user are statically | linked. Currently with the distributions I've been using if you make | a little mistake with shared libraries not only can you make your system | unuseable but unbootable. Frankly I can afford the disk space easier than | I can afford the risk. Why would anyone put dynamic linked stuff in sbin? To be sure that if there's a problem you are trying to recover with whatever you have on a floppy? There are very few things I feel are worth putting in /sbin or /usr/sbin, and I always have the dynamic copy in /bin to avoid wasting memory, but if something happens to the library you are just SOL if /sbin doesn't have the right stuff in it. I have the feeling that the FSS overlooked this, or that people making distributions have little experience in system administration. The stuff in /sbin should be only the stuff you need to do recovery, and really should be static linked. As mentioned, there are good reasons to have a dynamic copy in/bin, speeds loading and takes less memory, but when you have a problem you really don't want a single point of failure in the library. -- -bill davidsen (davidsen@tmr.com) "As a software development model, Anarchy does not scale well." -Dave Welch