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/bin And /sbin Now Dynamically Linked In FreeBSD

Posted by timothy on from the seen-at-same-nightclub dept.

Dan writes "Gordon Tetlow just committed a patch in FreeBSD current to change /bin and /sbin from statically to dynamically linked. The reason to do this is two-fold. This feature brings support for loadable PAM and NSS modules to base system utilities located in those directories. It also reduces the storage requirements for the root filesystem due to the use of shared libraries. This feature can be disabled in a buildworld by defining the Makefile (make.conf) variable WITHOUT_DYNAMICROOT. Note that statically-linked, crunched executables are available in the /rescue directory for use during system repair and recovery operations."

2 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Ant this news is ... by torpor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Of course it is.

    How the /bin && /sbin binaries are treated in a release as significant as FreeBSD, is definitely news for nerds, stuff that matters.

    The static nature of /sbin has been a significant issue in Unix-user/-admin land for many, many years. This change now sets in place a new scheme for administrators to understand and work around - with the new linking flag, admins can set up systems in new and interesting ways.

    Any FreeBSD admin who now doesn't understand the reasoning and potential problems of this new linking scheme will *definitely* need to learn it and understand it if they want to continue doing a good admin job in the future.

    One good way to learn about this and use it is to read the comments from slashdot readers about this issue ... and thus, this *IS* important news for slashdot.

    Just because SCO/MICROSOFT/LINUX isn't in the article, doesn't mean its not important ...

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
  2. Re:Cool by gnu-sucks · · Score: 5, Insightful

    if anything, there should be a /static. You see, 99% of all users will not see ANY improvement in this new scheme. It would be better to 'tack on' this idea as an option to the 2% user base that would actually use this to their advantage.

    Do I really want to set my default shell to /rescue/sh and set all my important tools similarly? Heck no.

    I want those users using PAM and whatnot to specify /static for THEIR SPECIFIC needs, and let the rest of the FreeBSD users maintain /bin and /sbin as they are, and should be.

    This is sort of like an isp optomizing all connections for SNMP, because two users said it would be a good idea for what they do all day. And the isp tells all the other users, "well, we have an alternative dialup connection you can use, though its only at 9600, for better web browsing"

    So sure, you can either 1) recompile FreeBSD, or 2) suffer the slings and arrows of /rescue.

    Or, FreeBSD could just NOT BE STUPID OUT OF THE BOX.