| Art Alexion on 24 Jan 2006 14:37:06 -0000 |
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sean finney wrote: >hey art, > >On Tue, Jan 24, 2006 at 08:42:55AM -0500, Art Alexion wrote: > > >>I have been led to believe that the /usr/local branch is where packages >>that aren't part of a distro should be installed. I put custom scripts >>in /usr/local/bin for that reason. >> >>What is the difference between these two and when should one use which? >> >> > >the short version of the story is that there isn't much difference >between the two. afaik they come from different histories to serve >generally the same purpose. nowadays however, i think it's simply >a matter of preference of the software developers of the individual >projects and the sysadmins installing the software. > >from my experience, stuff that defaults to going into /opt is typically >less oriented towards the FHS unix-style file/directory layouts. such >packages usually go in /opt/package, where evertying underneath is >directly controlled by the package and is more or less self contained. >for example: openoffice, mozilla suite, java, proprietary apps jump >to mind. this is mere conjecture on my part though. /usr/local >installations on the other hand typically imply the ability to co-exist >with other software applicatoins in the same directory tree. this is >by no means an absolute rule[1], but just about anything use install with >the ./configure; make; make install process would be a good example >of this co-existance paradigm. > >my personal preference is towards the latter, as either directly or >indirectly through osmething like stow/depot you can install/remove >software without having to constantly muck with your system profiles >for maintaining stuff like PATH. from a linux distribution developer >standpoint, it also is more attractive because you don't have to >be familiar with a certain software package to know where a certain >kind of file should be placed. > > > > sean > >[1] that is, many people use /opt with FHS-like layouts underneath and > /usr/local with the /opt style directories. > > Thanks, Sean. Makes sense. -- _______________________________________ Art Alexion Arthur S. Alexion LLC PGP fingerprint: 52A4 B10C AA73 096F A661 92D2 3B65 8EAC ACC5 BA7A The attachment -- signature.asc -- is my electronic signature; no need for alarm. Info @ http://mysite.verizon.net/art.alexion/encryption/signature.asc.what.html Key for signed PDFs available at http://mysite.verizon.net/art.alexion/encryption/ArthurSAlexion.p7c The validation string is TTJY-ZILJ-BJJG. ________________________________________ Attachment:
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