HEADS UP: /bin and /sbin are now dynamically linked

[Tim Kientzle]

Richard Coleman wrote:
> I think a better compromise is to add the make.conf option so that extra 
> utilities may be added to /rescue.

As David already pointed out, this is not entirely trivial.
Adding the programs isn't difficult, but it requires adjusting
library includes, which would be tricky to do automatically.

In addition, a surprising number of programs require minor
source edits to function correctly in /rescue.  In particular,
many programs have hard-coded references to specific programs
in /bin and /sbin.  I spent a long time tracking down such
references and replacing them with references to /rescue where
appropriate.  Without those changes, /rescue will work correctly
only if /bin and /sbin are functional.  There is a real potential
for landmines here.

> With the size of disk drives these days, (for my own setup) I'm tempted 
> to just add a complete copy of /bin and /sbin into /rescue.

There's surprisingly little of /bin and /sbin that isn't already
in /rescue.  Most of what's omitted was left out for very
straightforward reasons (e.g., tcsh is clearly redundant, devd is
incompatible with crunchgen, etc.)

The debate right now is over what programs from /usr/bin and
/usr/sbin should be included.  Right now, that includes
tar, gzip, bzip2, and vi/ex.

Tim Kientzle