One of the latest change proposals for the Fedora 40 release is to unify the location and contents of the /usr/bin and /usr/sbin directories. At the same time, /usr/sbin is suggested to replace the symbolic link pointing to /usr/bin.

The change sentence explains:

“The /usr/sbin directory becomes a symbolic link to bin, meaning that paths like /usr/bin/foo and /usr/sbin/foo point to the same location. /bin and /sbin are already symlinks to /usr/bin and /usr/sbin, so /bin/foo and /sbin/foo also point to the same location. /usr/sbin will be removed from $PATH by default.”

The separation between /bin and /sbin is no longer useful as the previous needs have become obsolete. This is an outdated practice that no longer makes sense in modern distributions. Several years ago, Fedora merged /bin and /usr/bin, and as a final step it is now proposed to merge /usr/bin and /usr/sbin.

This unification is expected to simplify both package distributors and end users. Also after this, Fedora will increase compatibility with other Linux distributions such as Debian, and will follow the example of Arch Linux, which has done a merger in the past. This change still needs to be approved by the Fedora Technical and Steering Committee to appear in the April Fedora 40 release.

Source: phoronix