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Comment by ainar-g | Hacker News Reader

IIRC, they got rid of all this in Plan 9. /bin was where binaries go. /usr was for user data. There were also /proc, /net, and probably /tmp?

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Yes, /bin is a directory where the bind[1] command can be used to multiplex/union other directories on top. The / directory in general is built this way as a virtual top directory, with the disk root being stored on /root and being bound over /.

Platform-specific files are stored in /$architecture and binaries in /$architecture/bin. Shell scripts are stored in /rc/bin. For the home directory, traditionally, this style is reversed so your shell scripts would be in $home/bin/rc.

The namespace for any process can be enumerated, so in my default shell, I can see which directories are currently bound (and how) on /bin:

  tenshi% ns | grep 'bind' | grep '/bin' 
  bind  /amd64/bin /bin 
  bind -a /rc/bin /bin 
  bind -b /usr/seh/bin/rc /bin 
  bind -b /usr/seh/bin/amd64 /bin 
  bind -a /sys/go/bin /bin 
  bind -a /usr/seh/go/bin /bin 
  tenshi%

[1] http://man.cat-v.org/9front/1/bind

This Plan 9 nostalgia weirds me out. It never happened! It was vaporware all along!

It's like having fond memories of Hillary Clinton's inauguration speech.

> It was vaporware all along!

I don't think “vapourware” means what you think it means.

To elaborate, the comparison with an alternative universe is silly, since there are actually papers that people can read and there is actually code that people can use. So saying that “it never happened” is wrong.

I installed Plan 9 once back in the 90's. It certainly exists, it just never reached mass levels of acceptance.

I installed it in the mid-2000s to be cool.

I'd say it's closer to the DMC DeLorean: short production run, works but has short comings, more of a meme than an actual commodity.

It's not vaporware though, they definitely delivered something that works. It's just that there wasn't a good reason to use it compared to other options.

Are you mixing up Plan9 with some legendary vapourware OS, MULTICS or something? Maybe the HURD? (NB: not entirely vapourware, but less finished than Plan9). Because Plan9 was (and is) a real system that you could (and can) run.

I was using Plan 9 for years, attended several workshops, and even was paid to work on it for a little while. It happened.

I mean, you can run it right now...

pro's of using 9p, /bin is where everything goes but you can bind any directory to it. so no worrying about running out of disk space since you can mount more disks.

Also, gobolinux tries to mimic this behavior as well. https://www.gobolinux.org/

Which is essentially the Microsoft Windows hier.

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