The real answer here.
Worth it.
Right now overlays requires elevated privilèges, but ideally it shouldn't. Rewriting the Linux kernel to implement per user namespaces like plan9 does would allow unprivileged actions from any user (just like if any user was sitting in a container, overlayed from the base system).
I know we're not there, and that's not the direction development is going, but this thread is about dreams, right ? 😉
About the XDG specs, they serve a totally different purpose so they're out of the discussion IMO. I'm not advocating against env variables. Just $PATH which is a workaround as I see it, but your mileage may vary.
As for your "issue" with steam, of course this is the best way to solve it. Because of today's OS limitation. My point is that with a better designed namespacing implementation, there would be more elegant solutions to solve it (and would get rid of the need to use LD_LIBRARY_PATH too, or literally any *_PATH env variable)
By mounting the binary over, I mean something like a bind mount. But in your case of a wrapper script, it doesn't apply indeed. Though in this case I would simply name the script steam-launcher and call it a day 🙂
Having multiple executables with the same name and relying on $PATH and absolute paths feels hackish to me, but that's only a matter of preference at this point.
I'm not saying we should get rid of $PATH right now. My point is that it was created to solve a problem we don't have anymore (not enough disk capacity), but we still keep it out of habit.
As a reminder, the discussion is about what should be rewritten from scratch in linux. And IMO, we should get rid of $PATH as there are better options.
Today's software would probably break, but my point is that $PATH is a relic from ancient times that solved a problem we don't have anymore.
You missed my point. The reason $PATH exists in the first place is because binaries were too large to fit on a single disk, so they were scattered around multiple partitions (/bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, etc...). Now, all your binaries can easily fit on a single partition (weirdly enough, /usr/bin was chosen as the "best candidate" for it), but we still have all the other locations, symlinked there. It just makes no sense.
As for the override mechanism you mention, there are much better tools nowadays to do that (overlayfs for example).
This is what plan9 does for example. There is no need for $PATH because all binaries are in /bin anyways. And to override a binary, you simply "mount" it over the existing one in place.
$PATH shouldn't even be a thing, as today disk space is cheap so there is no need to scatter binaries all over the place.
Historically, /usr was created so that you could mount a new disk here and have more binaries installed on your system when the disk with /bin was full.
And there are just so many other stuff like that which doesn't make sense anymore (/var/tmp comes to mind, /opt, /home which was supposed to be /usr but name was already taken, etc ...).
I KNEW IT !! Last of the puffer clan, that couldn't be real !
sysupgrade seems to fetch 7.5 right now. I'll see how well it goes !
Edit: upgrade went fine, running 7.5 now !
Can't wait for next year to keep on investigating this... Girl does have the same "run bad" tatoo as her though so that's why I'm asking ;)
CYB3R HUNT is an epochalyptic online adventure of which you are the hero! Check out the about page, the rules, and prepare for the opening on the 31^st^ of october !
Artworks are made by prahou, creator of the unix_surrealism universe (check out his mastodon account for the image on the background, and more quality content!).
As for the programs running :
Je viens d'achever la création de ma CYB3R HUNT, une aventure dystopique dont vous êtes le héros!
L'accès ouvrira à la fin du mois, et offrira un grand nombre de challenge techniques allant crescendo en terme de difficulté et d'implication. En progressant dans les défis proposés, vous ferez avancer l'histoire vers son dénouement, et gagnerez des "flags" permettant de mettre à jour votre score sur le tableau général.
Rendez-vous le 31 octobre pour vous mesurer à ce défi technique que je vous propose ! N'hésitez pas à repartager le lien d'ici là; plus on est de fous, plus ont rit ! 😉
(J'espère que l'auto promotion n'est pas un problème, auquel cas je retirerais mon post)
Came back from a trip in Corsica where we climb the most mental slab I've ever put my hands on !
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/5947610
On the 19th of January [...] The admin team was helpless. In the split of a second, the whole CYBFARM network went down. Every subsystem on the planet stopped, and there was nothing they could do against it. The CYBFARM has always been autonomous, and nobody had enough knowledges of its internals to debug or fix anything.
Hopefully, a few minutes later, the first system came back up: the security module. Then other subsystems rebooted one after the others, and the production of goods restarted as expected.
We later found that an overflow occurred in the system clock. This caused a disruption of the internal message bus of the CYBFARM, which entered a locked state, and shut itself down to prevent harming the subsystems. The CYBFARM eventually found and patched the bug automatically, without any external intervention from our part. This was the first time in History that [an autonomous system] healed itself without human action!
This is such a major milestone in History!
Agatha Zieg-Movnieski
Epochalypse incident report
artwork: @pmjv
The CYB3R HUNT will be starting soon… Spread the word, and get ready!
On the 19th of January [...] The admin team was helpless. In the split of a second, the whole CYBFARM network went down. Every subsystem on the planet stopped, and there was nothing they could do against it. The CYBFARM has always been autonomous, and nobody had enough knowledges of its internals to debug or fix anything.
Hopefully, a few minutes later, the first system came back up: the security module. Then other subsystems rebooted one after the others, and the production of goods restarted as expected.
We later found that an overflow occurred in the system clock. This caused a disruption of the internal message bus of the CYBFARM, which entered a locked state, and shut itself down to prevent harming the subsystems. The CYBFARM eventually found and patched the bug automatically, without any external intervention from our part. This was the first time in History that [an autonomous system] healed itself without human action!
This is such a major milestone in History!
Agatha Zieg-Movnieski
Epochalypse incident report
artwork: @pmjv
Case stared at the old laptop.
Is it broken ?
Molly closed the lid, and put it next the others, all destroyed by the CYBFARM security module.
There must be a way to bypass it...
artwork: @pmjv
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/1341812
The one true white rabbit.
The one true white rabbit.
Une dictature, comme vous y allez !