[olug] Installing software under /usr/local

[Matthew G. Marsh]

On Wed, 26 Feb 2003, Dave Burchell wrote:

> I feel bad about promulgating the (admittedly trivial) flame war, so I'm
> going to ask a legit question.
>
> Let's say I have a fine Linux box and most of my software has come
> to me as RPMs or .deb files.  But, I need to pick up the sources
> for a more recent version of some software, and I want to install it
> under "/usr/local".  Let's say I want the latest version of The GIMP.
> Should I install it under a directory I create called "/usr/local/gimp"
> or should I put The Gimp's libs under "/usr/local/lib", the executable
> under "/usr/local/bin", and so on?
>
> I've always leaned towards putting all the files under
> their own directory, then adding those that I want to my path
> (PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/gimp/bin).  That way I can keep the software
> versions straight, but it can be inconvenient when adding new users to the
> system and lead to a long path.

Ah - excellent methodology. And reflects well the way I prefer to play
with files. And so:

1: Make sure you use an actual physical partition
	(eg: /dev/hda2 mounted on /usr/local)
2: Then the joys of symlink are availible to behold.

For example - I have a collection of software which I appreciate using but
that has no erason to be in the global path. Thus I have a directory under
said partition mount (fe: /usr/local/mgmbin) with symlinks to all the
relevant usefullbinaries within it. I then merely add that single
directory to my executable path upon login. FWIW - I also chown/chmod the
directory appropriately so that I may keep my script collection within...

> Comments?  Opinions?
>
> --
> Dave Burchell                                          40.49'N, 96.41'W
> Free your mind and your software will follow.              402-467-1619
> http://incolor.inetnebr.com/burchell/                  burchell at acm.org

Of course I do not use prepackaged programs in any way, shape, or form.
And thus usually will not discuss usage of such prepackaged software.

YimVee.

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Matthew G. Marsh,  President
Paktronix Systems LLC
1506 North 59th Street
Omaha  NE  68104
Phone: (402) 932-7250
Email: mgm at midwestlinux.com
WWW:  http://www.midwestlinux.com
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