Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!panix!.POSTED.spitfire.i.gajendra.net!not-for-mail From: cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell Subject: Re: ed Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2026 11:31:08 -0000 (UTC) Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC Message-ID: <110e69s$ep5$1@reader1.panix.com> References: <110d4r6$gov$1@reader1.panix.com> <110d6ks$15hpd$1@kst.eternal-september.org> Injection-Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2026 11:31:08 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: reader1.panix.com; posting-host="spitfire.i.gajendra.net:166.84.136.80"; logging-data="15141"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@panix.com" X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test77 (Sep 1, 2010) Originator: cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) Xref: csiph.com comp.unix.shell:26894 In article <110d6ks$15hpd$1@kst.eternal-september.org>, Keith Thompson wrote: >cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) writes: >> In article , >[...] >> When Solaris 2 came along, essentially everything was >> dynamically linked; statically linked binaries went into /sbin, >> and my sense at the time was that 's' stood for 'static' (or >> possibly 'standalone'). Nowadays, that is mostly system >> utilities, whether statically linked or not, and so the meaning >> has shifted again. > >My recollection is that the 's' in sbin (/sbin and/or /usr/sbin), has >always stood for "system". Typically an ordinary non-administrative >user would not have /sbin or /usr/sbin in their $PATH, but both >would be in the default $PATH for the root account. > >Wikipedia (which is not a primary source) says it's "system" or >"superuser". >https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_filesystem#Conventional_directory_layout Ugh, don't nerd-snipe me, Keith: I've got work I have to get done today. :-) I think wikipedia is right, though. I can't remember when or where I first encountered /sbin, but I see it was in Net/2 BSD, and I have it on good authority it was in 4.3BSD-Reno. It's for things that _used_ to be in /etc. Note that in those days, BSD distributions from UC Berkeley did not have shared libraries; those came later. So everything was de facto statically linked (kinda like how everyone drove a manual transmission car and didn't really think about it until the Jones's drove up with the first automatic on the block. Now I can't even buy a new stick shift if I wanted; I digress). It appears that the intent for /sbin et al was always for it to hold system binaries that were not of interest to general users, but necessary for the correct functioning of the system. - Dan C.