location of binaries and libraries of new wifi tools

location of binaries and libraries of new wifi tools

[Daniel Mierswa]

Hey list, I was wondering where to put binaries for the new
wireless-stack based tools. Most default installations put libnl, crypto
and gcrypt into /usr. Applications like iw, wpa_supplicant and crda need
those to run, yet they do not link statically. So if the default
location for the new binaries is /sbin or /bin and the libraries it
links against are default installed somewhere into /usr things will
break. I wonder now what to do for consistency. Either statically link
libraries that are default installed into /usr, put those libs into /lib
or install the binaries into /usr aswell. I'd appreciate any comments on
that. :) Thanks and have a nice weekend.

-- 
Mierswa, Daniel

If you still don't like it, that's ok: that's why I'm boss. I simply
know better than you do.
               --- Linus Torvalds, comp.os.linux.advocacy, 1996/07/22

Re: location of binaries and libraries of new wifi tools

[Dan Williams]

On Fri, 2009-02-06 at 23:58 +0100, Daniel Mierswa wrote:
> Hey list, I was wondering where to put binaries for the new
> wireless-stack based tools. Most default installations put libnl, crypto
> and gcrypt into /usr. Applications like iw, wpa_supplicant and crda need
> those to run, yet they do not link statically. So if the default
> location for the new binaries is /sbin or /bin and the libraries it
> links against are default installed somewhere into /usr things will
> break. I wonder now what to do for consistency. Either statically link
> libraries that are default installed into /usr, put those libs into /lib
> or install the binaries into /usr aswell. I'd appreciate any comments on
> that. :) Thanks and have a nice weekend.

Stuff in /bin or /sbin can certainly link to stuff in /usr without
breaking.  The only time it breaks is when you're using network
mounted /usr and you need the wireless stack to boot the machine and
mount /usr.  But then you have to ask yourself, why are you using a
network mounted /usr over wifi?  That seems odd.  Somebody turns on a
microwave or starts to use a cordless phone and you're hosed.

Dan

Re: location of binaries and libraries of new wifi tools

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Fri, Feb 06, 2009 at 11:41:11PM -0500, Dan Williams wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-02-06 at 23:58 +0100, Daniel Mierswa wrote:
> > Hey list, I was wondering where to put binaries for the new
> > wireless-stack based tools. Most default installations put libnl, crypto
> > and gcrypt into /usr. Applications like iw, wpa_supplicant and crda need
> > those to run, yet they do not link statically. So if the default
> > location for the new binaries is /sbin or /bin and the libraries it
> > links against are default installed somewhere into /usr things will
> > break. I wonder now what to do for consistency. Either statically link
> > libraries that are default installed into /usr, put those libs into /lib
> > or install the binaries into /usr aswell. I'd appreciate any comments on
> > that. :) Thanks and have a nice weekend.
> 
> Stuff in /bin or /sbin can certainly link to stuff in /usr without
> breaking.  The only time it breaks is when you're using network
> mounted /usr and you need the wireless stack to boot the machine and
> mount /usr.

Which is a tradeoff to make.  But when you decide mounting /usr using
wireless networks is not viable you shoiuld just move the tools to
/usr/bin & /usr/sbin instead.  Having tools in /bin and & /sbin that
need libraries from /usr/lib is not a good idea as it violates the basic
assumptions (and doesn't actually help anything over having the tools
in /usr/bin & /usr/sbin)

Re: location of binaries and libraries of new wifi tools

[Daniel Mierswa]

On 07.02.2009 05:41, Dan Williams wrote:
> Stuff in /bin or /sbin can certainly link to stuff in /usr without
> breaking.  The only time it breaks is when you're using network
> mounted /usr and you need the wireless stack to boot the machine and
> mount /usr.  But then you have to ask yourself, why are you using a
> network mounted /usr over wifi?  That seems odd.  Somebody turns on a
> microwave or starts to use a cordless phone and you're hosed.
Right, point taken. But why should there be a non-working binary in
/sbin if you don't have /usr mounted. Couldn't we just stick all the
tools in /usr/{s,}bin then?


-- 
Mierswa, Daniel

If you still don't like it, that's ok: that's why I'm boss. I simply
know better than you do.
               --- Linus Torvalds, comp.os.linux.advocacy, 1996/07/22

Re: location of binaries and libraries of new wifi tools

[Luis R. Rodriguez]

On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 12:15 AM, Daniel Mierswa <impulze@impulze.org> wrote:
> On 07.02.2009 05:41, Dan Williams wrote:
>> Stuff in /bin or /sbin can certainly link to stuff in /usr without
>> breaking.  The only time it breaks is when you're using network
>> mounted /usr and you need the wireless stack to boot the machine and
>> mount /usr.  But then you have to ask yourself, why are you using a
>> network mounted /usr over wifi?  That seems odd.  Somebody turns on a
>> microwave or starts to use a cordless phone and you're hosed.
> Right, point taken. But why should there be a non-working binary in
> /sbin if you don't have /usr mounted. Couldn't we just stick all the
> tools in /usr/{s,}bin then?

So right now the libs I see from /usr/ that our new wireless tools may
use is libnl and openssl (libgcrypt goes into /lib/ at least on my
box), iw is already on /usr/sbin/ and crda can be moved to /usr/sbin/
if that makes everything peachy but just please note the udev rule
will change location, which should be fine, it is just noted.

  Luis