Arch Linux

caustic386

Member

Registered: 2009-02-22

Posts: 14

What is "sane" ?

I keep hearing/seeing this term tossed around.  I tried building Gentoo a few days ago, just to get a better understanding of how linux works, and emerge kept tossing out the term 'sane'.  Likewise, I've seen on the forums people talking about 'sane directory structure' and the like.  Can anyone offer a few links?  Tried doing more than a few searches, but all I turned up was people using the phrase, but never actually saying what it means.

normman

Member

Registered: 2009-04-07

Posts: 26

Re: What is "sane" ?

I don't know if this helps, but:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/i … 11392.html
Perhaps it would help to look at what, configure scripts, for instance, are checking when they use "sane."

Last edited by normman (2009-04-08 21:49:19)

Ronin-Sage

Member

Registered: 2008-10-24

Posts: 153

Website

Re: What is "sane" ?

"In computer science, a sanity test is a very brief run-through of the functionality of a computer program, system, calculation, or other analysis, to assure that the system or methodology works as expected, often prior to a more exhaustive round of testing." - Wikipedia

"Sanity...is for the weak!!" - Warhammer 40k

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caustic386

Member

Registered: 2009-02-22

Posts: 14

Re: What is "sane" ?

"In computer science, a sanity test is a very brief run-through of the functionality of a computer program, system, calculation, or other analysis, to assure that the system or methodology works as expected, often prior to a more exhaustive round of testing." - Wikipedia

So then how do I, personally, make sure I adhere to a sane directory structure in my everyday usage?  I believe I first heard sane structures referring to /usr/local, something about the way you choose to install/compile your programs?

SamC

Member

From: Calgary

Registered: 2008-05-13

Posts: 611

Website

Re: What is "sane" ?

I'm not sure if I'm being helpful, but just think of it as the opposite of "insane." Insane would be directories all over the place, with no similarity between them. For sane, compare the directories under /, /usr/, and /usr/local/. Notice how many of them have the same name and purpose?

caustic386

Member

Registered: 2009-02-22

Posts: 14

Re: What is "sane" ?

I'm not sure if I'm being helpful, but just think of it as the opposite of "insane." Insane would be directories all over the place, with no similarity between them. For sane, compare the directories under /, /usr/, and /usr/local/. Notice how many of them have the same name and purpose?

Maybe that's part of my problem - I don't really know what those directories and SUPPOSED to be used for?  I guess that's where I should start.

alienman

Member

From: Mexico

Registered: 2008-07-08

Posts: 106

Re: What is "sane" ?

What about this in the wiki
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sane

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ISC - Ignacio Marmolejo
ArchLinux & GNOME User.

japetto

Member

From: Chicago, IL US

Registered: 2006-07-02

Posts: 183

Re: What is "sane" ?

Sane = Sound choice.  Like sane defaults = sensible defaults.

NVS

Member

Registered: 2007-12-30

Posts: 29

Re: What is "sane" ?

A place to get started in regards to directory structure:
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard

Last edited by NVS (2009-04-09 01:47:58)

Nezmer

Member

Registered: 2008-10-24

Posts: 559

Website

Re: What is "sane" ?

What about 'man hier' ?

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English is not my native language .