UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Wat is the difference between the cp mv ln etc in /usr/sbin/static
and cp mv ln functions in /usr/bin

You ask a very broad and non-OS specific question. When you post please give us info on your OS flavor and the uname -a data would help too.

My HPUX systems don't have a /usr/sbin/static directory.

Provide more info and you might get a response that will help you.

Typically, the /sbin directory is for root only execs.
The /bin is for startup, boot functions. If you look you will see a few commands and shells in there as well.
The /usr/bin is for user level execs.
The /usr/local/bin is for scripts and homegrown executables.
My company has a /usr/localcw (company-wide) directory which has an sbin and bin sub-directory for root and user execs that are company specific.

So there are many uses for binary directories.

DPAI, if you're asking about the difference in what that command string does when executed in each of those two directories, I'd say there is none, regardless of which system you have, BUT...please post the distribution so we can make sure!

I don't know which OS DPAI is talking about, but I will make an educated guess as to answer to his question.

I would guess that /usr/bin/mv is dynamically linked while /usr/sbin/static/mv is staticly linked. A dynamically linked program needs shared libraries and a dynamic loader to run. The libraries, at least, and probably the loader will reside in /usr which is often a separate filesystem. So if /usr is not mounted or the shared library or loader have been damaged, all dynamically linked executables will not work. So the statically linked versions give you some commands that you can run in this situation.

All modern versions of unix behave like this. On HP-UX, type "file /sbin/mv /usr/bin/mv".

Its on Good old Sun Solaris 8

I never knew there were files like those until i installed this recommended patch given on Sunsolve .

DP