The idea of /usr/sbin has failed in practice

9 todsacerdoti 3 9/15/2025, 5:24:28 AM utcc.utoronto.ca ↗

Comments (3)

egberts1 · 2m ago
Ahhhh, more freedom for end-users to do root stuff.

Give a gun to a child, will ya?

magicalhippo · 2h ago
I'm just a casual Linux enjoyer. From what I can see, the FHS states[1] the following for the /usr/sbin/ directory:

This directory contains any non-essential binaries used exclusively by the system administrator.

The only interpretation that makes sense to me is that the /usr/sbin/ directory should only contain executables which cannot be run as non-root at all.

So if a non-root user can launch the executable in any way that does not fail due to lack of root privileges, it's not exclusively for the system administrator and should go in /usr/bin/.

Again that's the only interpretation that makes any sense to me. And it would lead to executables potentially moving between them as they gain or lose non-root capabilities.

As such, it might make one wonder what the separation is for, and think the Fedora approach of just merging /usr/sbin/ into /usr/bin/ makes sense.

[1]: https://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/FHS_3.0/fhs/ch04s10.htm...

patrakov · 1h ago
A literal reading of this "cannot be run as non-root at all" interpretation would be: no commands ever should be in /usr/sbin, as a regular user might want to see their --help, and this doesn't require root privileges.

Sarcasm of course.