From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 4.0.0 (2022-12-14) on finch.gentoo.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=DMARC_MISSING, MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=4.0.0 Received: from sm11.texas.rr.com (sm11.texas.rr.com [24.93.35.42]) by chiba.3jane.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8025A20EDABB for ; Sat, 9 Mar 2002 21:14:44 -0600 (CST) Received: from arn.net (cs666896-76.austin.rr.com [66.68.96.76]) by sm11.texas.rr.com (8.12.1/8.12.0) with SMTP id g2A384KW018538 for ; Sat, 9 Mar 2002 21:08:04 -0600 Received: by arn.net (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Sat, 9 Mar 2002 21:11:35 -0600 Date: Sat, 9 Mar 2002 21:11:35 -0600 From: mrfab@arn.net To: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org Message-ID: <20020310031135.GA29666@powerhouse> Mail-Followup-To: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Organization: Project J38 X-URL: http://j38.net/ X-Mailer: Karate Mail 6.34 X-Memo: Gone is the mastadon, vanished complete X-Warning: This accuracy of this message has not been verified X-Originating-IP: [127.0.0.1] X-WebsiteUser-IP: [127.0.0.1] Subject: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo observations Sender: gentoo-dev-admin@gentoo.org Errors-To: gentoo-dev-admin@gentoo.org X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.6 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org X-Reply-To: mrfab@arn.net List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Gentoo Linux developer list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: X-Archives-Salt: 603a2aa6-52dc-4c63-8f81-3ce737847b18 X-Archives-Hash: 9917274812302d95554b40d89a7089c3 Ok, I've been using gentoo for a few weeks now and am for the most part blown away. I had given up on ever finding a distro that I felt would give me the control and flexiblity I wanted (been using lfs for about two years) but finally found what I was looking for. That said, there are a couple of instances in which the current release falls a little short. These aren't flames or complaints, just observations that are VERY much my personal opinion--I just thought I'd point these things out to anyone that was interested. First, where the hell is vi? It is missing from both the boot image and the base install. I realize that I can emerge it, but having to use an editor as horrible as nano, even just for the initial config, was a bit obnoxious. Something else I noticed that the initial install is lacking is some sort of firewall script. It would seem to me that even something as simple as the examples used in the drobbin's stateful firewall design article would be better than nothing. I may be just missing something, but it seemed odd to me that there wasn't someplace I could look to get a full index of ebuilds and descriptions. As a quick hack I used the command below--but it certainly isn't very elegant at all. for x in `find /usr/portage/ -name '*.ebuild'` ; do ; echo `basename $x .ebuild` `grep DESCRIPTION $x` ; done > packages For the most part the file system layout of the installed packages is very well done, but a couple of things didn't seem to fit right to me. First, I understand the reasoning for having both gnome and kde in /usr...but it would be nice if it happend in a consistant manner so that gnome lived in /usr/gnome just as kde lives in /usr/kde. Another file system decision that seems off to me is the choice of /uar/local/httpd for the default documentroot instead of /var/www or something like /home/http. Speaking of apache, it would be better to use something other than nobody:nobody by default. My suggestion would be web:web and then having the default htdocs living in /home/web. You get *so* much more flexibilty over the execution of apache that way--for example, users with public html directories (as in server/~username) simply have to be added to the web group and chown the files in that directory to user:web instead of having to them be world readable. You also have the ability to enable write access in certain directories for that user/group if dynamic scripts require you to do so. I've noticed that a few distros (Redhat in particlular comes to mind) have modified useradd to create a personal group for a given user. At first glance it may seem odd, but if you give it some thought there really are some instances where it could be a good idea. For one thing, it would allow you to use a umask with +a for groups and then just chown to allow another group to read them instead of having to chown and chmod. That's about it--just a few notes I've made during usage. However, in comparison to all of the things that gentoo does right they are pretty insignificant. Just food for thougt. As a final note, the person that takes the time to create zsh completion scripts for the varioius gentoo scripts (from emerge to rc-update) deserves a special place in heaven. -- - Scott J Garner - - Austin, TX - USA - - ICQ: 17348307 AIM: Jungalero - - OPN: MrFab -