Re: question about /dev

From: Juhan Leemet (juhan_at_logicognosis.com)
Date: 08/02/04 

Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2004 19:27:41 -0200

On Sun, 01 Aug 2004 21:44:55 +0000, Mike Ballard wrote:
> On Sat Jul 31, I was peacefully napping until Jacob said:
>> >> Before you try to find a way to do this, is there any concievable reason
>> >> to do so?
>> >
>> > Sure - piles of crap that serve no purpose, serve no purpose. I want to
>> > get rid of them.
>>
>> But, but, but, *WHY*?
>
> (A simply incredulous) But, but, but...
>
> WiTF difference does it make to you *WHY* (besides that I answered once
> already, dissatisfied as you apparently are at the self-evident reason)???
> If you don't want to answer my question then fucking DON'T! But don't
> give me this lecture bull*** whereby you pass your judgement on whether
> or not you think OP merits an answer.

My, aren't we testy today? He was simply giving you good advice.

> There's a very simple concept here that seems to escape many - a question
> is posted and you can either answer it or ignore it. You however chose
> the all-too-common approach which is to grill the questioner to ascertain
> that: "Yes indeed, after interrogation the question satisfies me such that
> I will impart wisdom that I now deem OP worthy to receive."

You obviously don't understand how this works. We are not your personal
slaves or drudges. You posted what to me also appears to be a "naive"
question (why is the sky blue, why don't we make it red?). The other
fellow actually took time out his busy day to compose a reply to you!!!
He was actually (IMO, after 20+ years of using *nix) giving you good
advice. If you don't like it, don't read it. That's how it works. You have
no right to forbid someone from attempting to answer and give good advice.

All too often people unfamiliar with a system will try to "twist it" into
some more familiar concept. I remember a case where a VAX/VMS programmer
spent about a year (of his customer's money?!?) writing scripts to
emulate the VAX/VMS file version numbering system, on HP/UX. IMO it was a
total waste of time/money, since with a slightly different *nix approach
(without the VAX/VMS prejudice) he could have already finished the
application, when he was only starting it (and the customer was getting
impatient). Solve the "real problem", don't paper over symptoms.

Define your problem(s), learn to "think right", find simple solutions.

>> 1) they don't take up any space (expect for symlinks and directorys).
>> 2) how do you know which ones you'll never need?
>> 3) if they bother/confuse you, don't look at them.
>>
>> > This is a single-user home computer and there's no reason /dev needs to be
>> > teeming with 5k entries -
>>
>> I *showed* that they aren't '5k'. Most are 0B. The total disk space
>> taken by my /dev (du -sh /dev) is 453k. I'm sure you have more than
>> 453k/5k = 90.6 nodes in your /dev
>
> Who the hell said anything about disk space (besides you)??

OK, what's the real question? You don't like useless files or symlinks?
OK, then delete the ones you don't need! If you don't know which ones they
are, how in hell is someone else supposed to read your mind and system?
RTFM until you know what you want to do, and then do it. YMMV

> You just gotta love usenet (or uselessnet in this case). OP asks a
> question whereby some answer-gatekeeper takes it upon himself to insist
> that since respondent can't think of a reason for something there must
> therefore BE no reason for it.

No, he's merely trying to answer the "real question" as opposed to telling
you how you can most effectively hang yourself with your own rope.

The best way to clean up your system is "rm -rf /" as "root". OK, happy?

> If somebody asks a question, answer it if you like. If you prefer not to,
> no big deal. But quit making it your job to decide what is appropriate
> and quit wasting my time (besides, /dev has already been cleaned to a
> reasonable couple hundred, absolutely no thanks to you).

And where is it written that you have authority to command everyone else?
This is a community here. We all have some say. If we don't like the form
of your questions or comments we can also comment on that. You should be
happy that anyone bothers to reply to your posts at all! OTOH, if you want
your own private forum: rent web space, put up your site, see who comes. 

-- 
Juhan Leemet
Logicognosis, Inc.