uucp cleanup script (SysVr4.0)

[Rob Healey]

In article <1991May30.084719.15177 at grep.co.uk> vic at grep.co.uk (Victor Gavin) writes:
>I thought the main reason that everything was sym-linked was to allow
>(as you say later) the removing of machine dependent files from a
>normal file system into somewhere else (local to each machine) so that
>many machines could share common disks.
>If this is the case, why such a bogus hack. HP looked at the problem
>and came up with a general purpose solution that *doesn't* break
>anything. The technology for this has been given to OSF and it's
>called Context Dependent Files (CDFs).
>
	Symlinks in and of themselves didn't break anything, reorganizing
	the directory structure is what has broken things! SunOS has used
	symlinks for diskless nodes for years without too much problem,
	it's when the /sbin, /var, /home stuff came onto the scene that
	chaos broke out.

>I'm intrigued as to how diskless clients are supported under this
>massive sym-linking exercise, since they have no local disks, how do
>the sym-links point to an area of disk which is for that machine only?
>
	Same way SunOS has done it for years. The clients mount a
	private area based on their node name. All sym links point
	into the private area that has been reserved for that node.
	Generally speaking, each node has a private copy of the root
	file system that takes up a small amount of space, say 3-6M.
	This root contains all the files unique to that node.

	Admittedly, symlinks are out of control. I removed alot of them
	by compiling programs to use the new names, /var, /etc/uucp and
	so on. The uucp and admin binarys seem to use the new paths, the
	symlinks are there for the benifit of well trained fingers not
	the programs. Hopefully in a few revs R4 will junk the old names,
	take the heat from old cogers who are pissed 'cause they have to
	relearn sacred path names, and then get on with life without all
	the damn sym links.

>Victor Gavin <vic at grep.co.uk||..!ukc!grep!vic||..!ukc!vision!grep!vic>

		-Rob