Re: Future of OS/2 : was: ECS questions

On Sun, 23 Apr 2006 00:28:45 -0400, Wolf Kirchmeir <wolfekir@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
In Linux, everything is a file, and a directory is just a file
"containing" (ie, pointing to) other files.

A partition is just another directory. But you normally cannot see
partitions as a user, because users don't have admin rights. The basic
structure is like this:

You can see them, you just won't be able to _change_ them.

Use the 'df' (display filesystems) command from a terminal to list all the
physical partitions and where they are mounted.


/root: the lowest level of the directory tree. 'root' is the
administrator: to get to it, you must have admin rights. You set the
/root password when you install Linux, so don't forget it! From /root
you can do everything. On some distros, the user with access to /root
will have a special, unchangeable, name.

As Wayne noted, you really mean /, the root directory. (There is usually
also a subdirectory called /root, which is something different entirely --
the admin user's home directory.)


/root/hdevx: physical devices (apparently it means "Hardware DEVice).

No, not unless things have majorly changed in the distro you're using.

The naming scheme is /dev/hd[xy] in my experience -- this is for IDE drives.
(If they are SCSI attached ISTR they are called /dev/sd[xy] instead.)

'x' is the disk number on the DASD chain (IDE or SCSI), and 'y' is the
partition number. (Linux doesn't always number the partitions according
to their physical order on the disk, which can get a little confusing.)
'y' is optional; when omitted, hdx refers to the entire disk.

The value of 'x' also tends to depend on where the disk is actually
located on the IDE chain... in the case if IDE, /dev/hda is the master on
the primary controller, I think /dev/hdb is the slave on the primary
controller, /dev/hdc is the master on the secondary controller, etc. (So
you could have only /dev/hda and /dev/hdc, if you have no slave drives.)

So /dev/hda1 is the first partition on the primary master disk. /dev/hdb4
is the fourth partition on the primary slave disk. /dev/hdc is the entire
disk on the secondary master.

On a typical system with one IDE hard disk and one IDE CD/DVD-ROM,
/dev/hda[x] is the hard disk and its various partitions, and the CD-ROM
will probably be /dev/hdc.


Partitions are assigned directory names, instead of drive letters. That
makes using partitions completely seamless, since they appear to be part
of a single hierarchical directory tree.

For instance, your /opt or /usr directory might be separate partitions...
but as the user, you wouldn't notice.


Your files (data and programs installed by or accessible to you) reside
in (are accessed through) /root/user/home.*** (Or root/home. This seems
to vary from one distro to another.) 'user' is you, and not to be
confused with /usr, which AFAIK is the directory for shared files.

What distro are you using? The standard in almost all Linux distros is
/usr/home/xyz, where 'xyz' is your username.


Final point: The reason for this system is to control access to files.
Linux, like all Unixes, is a server OS at heart, even when adapted for
single-machine use. So unlike DOS/Win/OS2, Gnome by default will let you
see _only_ your /home directory. Access to anything else must be
explicitly permitted. And unlike DOS/Win/OS2, Linux by default forces
you set up at least one /user account: you must make some explicit
decisions to boot into /root every time Linux starts. Only one user has
admin rights. On XP, any number of users can have admin rights - that's
what you're used to.

Not at all -- any number of Linux users can be given admin rights, as
well. You can easily give your personal userid root access, generally by
adding it to the root group (not that this is necessarily a good idea).
I used to do this routinely.


"It's all rather confusing, really."

Only until you understand the principles involved. Then it actually makes
quite a lot of sense.

That only applies to working from the command line, of course... because
the underlying operating system is designed to adhere to the Unix/POSIX
standards quite well.

All bets are off when you go into GUI land, however... because there is no
unifying standard for how a Linux desktop is supposed to behave, or what
kinds of metaphor(s) it's supposed to use. Each desktop environment, and
frequently each individual application, invents its own way of doing
things. I typically find trying to do things through the GUI _more_
arcane and frustrating than working directly from the Linux command
line... because at least the command line behaves in a consistent way.

(Eric S. Raymond, one of the more insightful members of the Linux and
open source communities, has an excellent writeup in his book 'The Art of
Unix Programming', which does a very good job of summing up the cultural
failures of Unix and Linux: <http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch20s05.html>)

"Unix _is_ user-friendly. It's just very particular about who its friends
are."

--
Alex Taylor
http://www.cs-club.org/~alex

Remove hat to reply (reply-to address).
.

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