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SPICE-E BACoN (UDTQ#107)- Unix "Registry

HAPPY FRIDAY, FOLKS! (Sorry for yelling! I’m just giddy this morning. Someone handed me the keys to their Miata earlier and told me to take it for a spin! :smile: More on this in The Ramble.)

The Recap:

Yesterday’s question took us back to NT4, and more specifically the registry. Jonathan did the hard work of writing a full explanation for this one, so I’m just going to give you that, so I can spend more time rambling about my fun morning! :joy:

I’ve found that spoiler tags get weird when you have multiple line breaks, so I’m just wrapping this in a details tag instead:

Click to view the explanation

Explanation: In Windows NT 4.0, the recommended program for editing the registry was REGEDT32.EXE. REGEDIT.EXE had been ported from Windows 95, but was recommended only for its search capabilities, which REGEDT32.EXE lacked. REGEDT32.EXE also allowed editing permissions on keys, which REGEDIT.EXE lacked.

With the release of Windows XP (and Server 2003), the feature sets of both were merged into REGEDIT.EXE, and REGEDT32.EXE became a stub application that launched REGEDIT.EXE.

REG.EXE is a command line utility for reading and modifying registry entries.

BA.CON is a tasty pork-based meat product usually served with breakfast in North America.

Click to view yesterday's results

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The Ramble:

I know cars aren’t everyone’s thing, so I’ll hit you with my question, and wrap the story in a details tag for you, because I’m really going to ramble on this one!

When’s the last time a stranger did something unexpectedly nice for you? Or that you did so for a stranger?

Click to view my Ramble on getting to drive a fun car!

I took my doggo to doggie daycare this morning, and on the way there it started to rain. When I got there, I noticed that someone had left the top down on their Miata, so I went in to make sure they were aware it was raining, and of course they quickly went outside to put the top up.

I’ve wanted an RF hardtop for a while now, but I’ve always heard they’re too small and that I wouldn’t be comfortable in them… (By the way, folks are dead wrong when they say that. I had the seat maybe only 25% of the way back and still felt like I could have moved forward a click or two, because I wasn’t pushing the clutch in the whole way at first.) So when I went back outside, I asked her how she liked it. Of course, she loves it, and when I mentioned that I’d been thinking about getting one, but folks had told me I’d be too big, she slid the seat back, and said “try it!”

She must have seen how happy that made me, because once I got in (and had to move the seat up) she asked how much time I had, then handed me the keys and said “take it for a spin!”

I didn’t go far, partly because I needed to go home, but also because it was WAY torquier than I expected in the low gears, to the point where I was starting to worry I might break something. :joy:

Maybe it’s just that I’ve never driven a manual sports car, but in most row-your-own cars I’ve driven, you have at least a few seconds of first and second gear, and I don’t often accidentally chirp the tires shifting into 3rd :joy: That said, the last manual I drove was a 5-speed Sunfire that my father picked up for $200, and the shift linkage was literally held together with zip ties, sooo… :person_shrugging:

I was going to buy them a $50 gas card as a thank you, but realized I forgot my wallet at home, (wouldn’t that have been a terrible time to get pulled over? "No, officer, I don’t have my ID, no I don’t know the name of the person that owns this car, no, I don’t know if they have insurance on it, but I promise I didn’t steal it!) so I’ll have to catch them again sometime to properly thank them.

Anyway, I had an extremely fun drive this morning! :joy:

The Real Question:

Alright, I’ve spent far too much time rambling (and I want to save the other submission I had for yesterday’s question for another TT) so you’re getting an off the top of my head question. It’s “Fun” Friday, because you all think Linux is fun, right? :joy:

Which of these locations is the closest analog to the Windows Registry, and would be the most appropriate place to store configurations on Linux and Unix-like systems?
  • /home
  • /config
  • /etc
  • Nowhere, you store them with “Syscon -B -a -Con -W -Ffild Config.d.conf.plist.tar.gz”
  • I’m not sure, but I’m excited to learn more!
0 voters

The Rest:

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As always, if you have suggestions for future questions, improvements, or want to help out with a full question, shoot me a DM or leave a comment below!

And since you’re still reading this, don’t forget to leave me a spice-up just below this! If it’s not orange and filled-in like this → :sw_pepper: it’s not spiced up yet! It lets me know you enjoy these and gives us both points, so why not?

34 Spice ups
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I need to get back into using Linux more.

11 Spice ups
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Same. I had a VM with one of distros but that was eons ago.

Wild guess on this one.

8 Spice ups
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I would NEVER sully my bacon by storing config info there!

14 Spice ups
5

So cool… I occasionally miss my manual trans (I’ve probably got over 500,000 miles of row-your-own experience).

Totally guessing here… The Miata probably had a much, much lighter clutch than you’re used to. When my wife would switch from her manual Mustang to my manual Honda, she often had a similar issue. The Mustang clutch took probably at least 2 times the force as the Honda’s, so even though the Honda had < 50% of the torque, she chirped the Honda’s tires often. It was a lot of fun teasing her about her lead foot.

10 Spice ups
6

That was a wonderful trusting person letting you take their car for a spin - glad you didn’t do so literally. :grin:

Probably the nearest to that I’ve had happen was one time when I was hitch-hiking (in the late '80s/early '90s) … as I was walking out of Taupo (New Zealand), some guy pulled alongside me and asked if I had a driver’s licence - unfortunately I didn’t back then - he was going to ask me to drive a car from there to Wellington (New Zealand), a distance of a few hundred kilometres! Wow! Making that offer to a total stranger! :exploding_head:

7 Spice ups
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A couple of car stories. My dad used to run an auto repair shop, and I got to test drive some of the cars we worked on. One was a Datsun 240Z that we replaced the steering gear. on a 240Z, worn out steering gear meant the steering wheel would move an inch without the wheels turning; very precise rack and pinion. That machine was deceptively quick. Took it out on the largely unused highway near our shop and passed a car. It went from 50mph to 80 with no fuss and so quickly you had no idea you were accelerating that much. And there was much more power there than I used. Fun drive.

The other was my dad’s 1966 Dodge Charger. He’d set up the Torqueflite automatic with a shift kit. When you stomped on it you would get rubber on the one-two shift; a 340 (not the original motor) would put out some power when the back two barrels of the carb opened. My sister used to use it to drag race the hot rod boys in high school. She always won.

11 Spice ups
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Unix/Linux has a registry? I was told these OSs were superior to Windows.

Happy Fri-yay!

I let some “driver” merge in front of me because the driver decided to wait until the last 10 feet to merge. This is me being “nice”.

6 Spice ups
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Honestly, that’s nicer than I would have been (assuming there were signs/obvious warnings they’d need to merge.) :joy:

Particularly, when there’s a lane closed and there’s warnings for like a mile back “merge left, lane closed in $x ft” etc., I absolutely refuse to let people who wait until the last moment over. Even if they’re driving a beater, I’m taking the chance and making sure there’s not space for them between me and the car in front of me.

On the other hand, though, if they’re trying to move over early, especially large trucks, I will do my best to make space for them.

7 Spice ups
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I’m not a real car nut but think are kind of interesting. I think the most unique thing I drove was a Ram TRX at the time was probably around 1000HP. I’ve been passenger a few times and it will do 0-60 in just over 3 seconds. It belongs to coworker I drove it home once at lunch because they were working on my car, it was like sleeting out I get back and teacher (that owns the TRX) and student were like you race anyone? I’m just like NO why would I do that esp when it’s Icey out.

6 Spice ups
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That Ramble was quite the story! I’ve never known of anybody to just offer someone to take a car of theirs out for a spin that wasn’t either related somehow or was a car salesman who already had that person’s driver’s license information on hand.

I also like the explanation of what BA.CON is. :grin:

Absolutely! More Linux questions please! :smiley:
(ducks)

6 Spice ups
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Haha, I’m very grateful for them being so trusting with me! And to be fair, they might not know me, but they did have my dog and my car as a sort-of collateral :joy:

And yes, I know there’s actually quite a few folks here that don’t mind (or even enjoy) Linux questions, but we did have a streak there at the end of the old system that really put folks off of Linux and PowerShell questions. :joy: (two topics that I enjoy myself)

5 Spice ups
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Nope. No registry in either Unix or Linux (or BSD for that matter). However, there is a place where system-level configuration information is commonly stored separate of the executable files for the software packages they configure so it’s somewhat comparable to the Windows registry on a very broad level.

5 Spice ups
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Answer is always Bacon

8 Spice ups
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I had a Ferrari Modena for about 8 months. It actually belonged to a friend that let me take it for a “spin” and he never picked it back up. After few days, I asked him if he wanted me to bring it over to him, he told me to have fun with it, which I did. After he finally took it back, people would stop him and say, “Hey, isn’t that Cyn’s Ferrari?” I guarantee, in the 8 months I had it, I drove it more than he did in the 4 years he owned it. I also had his wife’s Mercedes SL600 Roadster for about 3 months because she was tired of driving it.
I live in Weston, FL - IYKYK.

8 Spice ups
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I’m guessing a little like Boca Raton?

2 Spice ups
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Even though I’m not very Linux experienced, I was fairly confident that the answer was /etc and that /config was just made up. I may have to create /bacon sometime on a Linux system if I ever have any important files to store.

You’ve got me REALLY missing owning a manual. I’ve had four manual vehicles: 1984 Mazda GLC (my first car), a 1991 Honda Accord (most fun car I ever owned!), a 1993 Toyota Tercel (my only 4- speed), and a 1994 Nissan Hardbody 4x4 (four banger, it was gutless). The truck was my daily driver until it was wrecked four years ago at 26 years old, with under 80k on the odometer. :cry: I want to get something old, like a 60’s Ford Falcon maybe, that’s a three on the column. That would be fun! :smiley:

6 Spice ups
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1966 Charger…that was my first car. I still truly miss it. I had one with a 318 and my Dad had one with a 440 (was a 361 car). Sure wish I didn’t sell mine :frowning:

5 Spice ups
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My dad’s had a 318 when he got it. Those polysphere head older 318s were stout motors. The card said it came with a 361.

5 Spice ups
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I driven a few column shift manuals. Once was early '60s Chevrolet pickup with a LOT of miles. Shifting that was more akin to painting an abstract work of art than operating a mechanical object. The linkage was very loose and there was no feel of notches/detents at all. It was quite an adventure.

6 Spice ups