>>>>> On Wed, 16 Oct 2019, William Hubbs wrote:

> Back in the day, the s in /sbin and /usr/sbin meant static, not super
> user. All binaries in those directories were statically linked.

Where have you found that statement? The "s" stands for "system",
not for "static". See for example [1].

Traditionally, these programs used to be in /etc (!), and were moved
to /sbin later. For example, documentation of V7 Unix [2] says that
"dangerous maintenance utilities" live in /etc (and doesn't mention
/sbin at all).

Somewhat later, in 4.3BSD NET/2 these system binaries are in /sbin:
"system programs and administration utilities fundamental to both
single-user and multi-user environments" [3].


[1] https://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/FHS_3.0/fhs/ch03s16.html
[2] https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=hier&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=Unix+Seventh+Edition&arch=default&format=html
[3] https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=hier&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=4.3BSD+NET%2F2&arch=default&format=html
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