/usr/local/bin vs /usr/local/sbin

[Darrin Chandler]

On Sun, Sep 03, 2006 at 06:58:36AM -0700, Eric Shubes wrote:
> What's the 's' supposed to stand for? System (as in OS)?
> Where should application scripts go by convention? Somewhere referenced by 
> $PATH I'm imagining. /usr/local/bin?

I'm pretty sure it stands for one of "secure" or "system" or that word
from Mary Poppins. sbin is usually reserved for scripts and programs
only used by the system or by root. Scripts normally run by plain users
should go in /usr/local/bin. Depending on your distro, users in various
groups (wheel, operator, staff, etc) may have sbin in their paths as
well.

Note that any user is free to modify their own $PATH, and placing
something in /usr/local/sbin is not a security measure. It's a
convenience so that users who can't or shouldn't run certain programs
don't have it on their path by default.

The distinction between /?bin, /usr/?bin, and /usr/local/?bin is also
important. Things that should be available from the very beginning, or
available in single user mode, etc., should be in /?bin since that's on
the root partition (stuff in /usr/* may not be available)

-- 
Darrin Chandler            |  Phoenix BSD Users Group
dwchandler at stilyagin.com   |  http://bsd.phoenix.az.us/
http://www.stilyagin.com/  |