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Full Discussion: Really understanding Linux/Unix-Derivatives
Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Really understanding Linux/Unix-Derivatives Post 302452158 by Corona688 on Thursday 9th of September 2010 12:11:57 PM
Old 09-09-2010
Quote:
Originally Posted by shitson
I know of Gentoo and Slackware and the Build it yourself Linux version but i'm wondering if anyone here has an opinion about what they think if the best Operating system to fully understand the guts of the system (also being forced to learn it) by not including some temptation as package managers etc.
Building your own packages is a nice thought, but you kind of need a working system to do so. Building everything from scratch also means fixing all bugs and patching all patches by hand; it can be a problem just finding them all, let alone applying them properly.

Gentoo is closer to what you want, I think. Yes, it has a package manager, but not an intrusive one. It won't throw a fit over you using the "wrong" kernel, it checks for needed features in /proc/config.gz at runtime instead of hardcoding a dumb binary. Its build files are all shell scripts, illustrating what deviations are needed from the general "./configure ; make ; make install" procedure. Its "package database" is a sanely organized tree of files under /usr/portage, and its list of installed packages is something similar under /var/db/pkg. It needs a sane build environment of course so installs all libraries and headers, there's no clutter of "xyz-dev" packages to hunt down and pin to the board. If you want to build from hand, Gentoo's a decent place to try.

The one problem might be udev, which started as a modest device-node manager but has mushroomed into something capable of probing modules, reordering network devices, starting services, and making coffee without user intervention. If you really want to understand linux these days though there's probably no escaping it, it's quite fundamental now.

Even if you do LFS or something, Gentoo's still a convenient source of tarballs and patchsets.
Last edited by Corona688; 09-09-2010 at 01:20 PM..
 

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LEARN ABOUT OSX

cr

cr(1)                                                         General Commands Manual                                                        cr(1)

NAME

       cr - converts text files between nix EOL and dos EOL

SYNOPSIS

       cr  - | +  <input file> <output file>

DESCRIPTION

       Text  files,  such  as tle files, that come from a dos source usualy have the ^M symbol at the end of every line. Cr converts files between
       the dos newline format and the normal *nix newline format by stripping the ^M to convert dos to *nix, using the '-' option, or adding ^M to
       a *nix file to create the proper dos file when the '+' option is used.

       Although this extra character is not often a problem, programs like seesat5, which are data driven will encounter parsing problems when the
       extra character is present. It is these problems that cr is intended to repair.

   Options
       - | +  One or the other of these options is required. The '-' option is used to remove ^M from all newlines found in the dos file. The  '+'
              option is used to add ^M to every newline found in a *nix file.

       input file
              Fully delineated path to the input file. As this program is used in the dos environment as well, standard input is not used.

       output file
              Fully delineated path to the output file. As this program is used in the dos environment as well, standart output is not used.

SEE ALSO

       seesat5(1), seesat5(7), SEESAT5.INI(5), tle(5)

BUGS

       Cr  is  not an inteligent program. It methodicaly replaces/removes the offending character when it finds it in the correct context. Newline
       sequences found in contexts other than 'newline' will be replaced/removed just like those found in the proper  context.  Passing  a  binary
       file through cr is not advised, for this reason. Send all inqueries to Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net>.

Debian Linux                                                        2 April 96                                                               cr(1)
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