sun
   microsystems              Systems Architecture Committee

_________________________________________________________________

Subject:       /usr/gnu

Submitted by:  Stephen Hahn

File:          PSARC/2007/047/opinion.ms

Date:          January 31st, 2007

Committee:     James D. Carlson, Kais  Belgaied,  Ed  Gould,
               Joseph Kowalski, Tim Marsland, Glenn Skinner,
               Bill Sommerfeld, Gary Winiger.

Product Approval Committee:

               Solaris PAC
               solaris-pac@sun.com

1.  Summary

This project builds on  "Enabling  serendipitous  discovery"
(PSARC  2005/185)  and proposes two new policies for Solaris
related to  GNU/FSF-derived  software  that  conflicts  with
Solaris  components.   The  first  is  the creation of a new
"/usr/gnu" hierarchy to be delivered with Solaris, and popu-
lated   with  GNU/FSF-derived  objects  that  conflict  with
Solaris objects.  The second is a policy  relating  to  'g'-
prefixed variants in the standard file system locations.

2.  Decision & Precedence Information

The project is approved as specified in reference [1].

The project may deliver in a patch/micro release of Solaris.

See the final specification in reference [1] for details  on
the new policies.

3.  Interfaces

The project exports the following interfaces.

____________________________________________________________
|                   Interfaces Exported                    |
|___________________|________________|_____________________|
|Interface          |  Classification|  Comments           |
|___________________|________________|_____________________|
|/usr/share/info    |  Committed     |  Single directory   |
|___________________|________________|_____________________|

PSARC/2007/047               Copyright 2007 Sun Microsystems

                           - 2 -

____________________________________________________________
|                   Interfaces Exported                    |
|___________________|________________|_____________________|
|Interface          |  Classification|  Comments           |
|___________________|________________|_____________________|
|/usr/gnu           |  Committed     |  Directory hierarchy|
|/usr/gnu/bin       |  Committed     |                     |
|/usr/gnu/sbin      |  Committed     |                     |
|/usr/gnu/include   |  Committed     |                     |
|/usr/gnu/lib       |  Committed     |                     |
|/usr/gnu/libexec   |  Committed     |                     |
|/usr/gnu/share     |  Committed     |                     |
|/usr/gnu/share/info|  Committed     |                     |
|/usr/gnu/share/man |  Committed     |                     |
|/etc/gnu           |  Committed     |  Directory hierarchy|
|/var/gnu           |  Committed     |  Directory hierarchy|
|/var/gnu/com       |  Committed     |                     |
|___________________|________________|_____________________|

4.  Opinion

4.1.  Why GNU?

The existing precedent for XPG and UCB environments is based
on  ideal or historic systems that the user may need to emu-
late.  Several ARC  members  asked  why  GNU  in  particular
(rather  than  some  GNU-using  system, such as a particular
Linux distribution) was an interesting reference point,  and
why we should not be examining other possible software repo-
sitories.

The project team made several points  in  response.   First,
this  project  deals with conflict resolution, and conflicts
are an issue primarily with Unix-like environments.  GNU  is
the  only  alternative  Unix-like repository of any signifi-
cance, given our intertwined BSD history, and the  only  one
expected to exist in the future.  Further, close integration
of these tools into Solaris is a great benefit for  JDS  and
other  consolidations, both in building open source software
and in supporting applications.

The ARC members agreed with this answer.

4.2.  Full Versus Sparse Directory

Several ARC members objected to the fully-populated  symlink
forest  in the original proposal, as it's both less flexible
than a sparse (conflicts-only) directory  and  unnecessarily
different  from  our  precedents.  The team agreed to update
the specification to remove the symlinks.

PSARC/2007/047               Copyright 2007 Sun Microsystems

                           - 3 -

4.3.  Administrative Utilities Excluded

A few ARC members pointed out that  administrative  applica-
tions  designed  for  Linux  or  some  other  GNU system are
unlikely to work correctly on Solaris, whatever  their  mer-
its.  The team agreed to update the specification to exclude
the new policy from applying to things that are deemed to be
administrative in nature.

One important issue is that what is considered  "administra-
tive"  is  sometimes subjective.  The distinctions are some-
times based on how the utilities are used rather  than  what
they  do.   This  is  an  issue that may need to be examined
again as future projects use the policies set forth in  this
case.

The ARC members did not review a proposal to include  admin-
istrative  utilities, but it's expected that such items in a
future case would be subject to much more substantial review
and constraint.

5.  Minority Opinion(s)

None

6.  Advisory Information

None

7.  Appendices

7.1.  Appendix A: Technical Changes Required

None

7.2.  Appendix B: Technical Changes Advised

None

7.3.  Appendix C: Reference Material

Unless stated otherwise, path names are relative to the case
directory PSARC/2007/047.

1.   Final specification File:  final.spec.txt

PSARC/2007/047               Copyright 2007 Sun Microsystems