On Thu, 24 Feb 2000, George Zeigler wrote:
Hello, OK. So when I download tarballs, should I run 'tar xzf' in the /usr/local directory, so that the programs create directories off of this extension, so that I get: /usr/local/tarball_1 /usr/local/tarball_2 /usr/local/tarball_3
That's reasonable, but over-simplified. Usually, I get applications in source and compile them myself, thereby avoiding complications with poor library compatibility. I have a ~/src directory, and that's where I put my source tarballs. `make install' usually puts things in /usr/local/bin, and I am fine with that. The problem with using `/usr/local/tarball_1' is that for a regular user to use these programs, you would have to either add that location to the users' PATH or make a symlink in /usr/local/bin (which isn't a bad idea at all, assuming that all other environmental/library variables were handled accordingly). For instance, RealPlayerG2 installed to /usr/local/RealPlayerG2, and I created a symlink in /usr/local/bin to make `realplay' more readily accessable.
Now /usr/local/bin seems to be the place to throw executables. Why? In Win for instance, I preferred that each program had it's own directory.
UNIX is not Windows, and Linux isn't, either. UNIX standards point to /bin being the location of binaries needed by root, /sbin being the location of binaries needed by the system or daemons, and /usr/bin and /usr/sbin being the location of binaries everyone needs. /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/sbin were created so that the administrator would have a place to locate the applictions that his user needs, but were not included on the installation medium. /opt was introduced by AT&T some number of years ago for commercial applications, and can be reasonably compaired to C:\Program Files\ on a Windows system. /opt is good for things like KDE, Netscape, and similar commercial/third-party packages. I don't recall the URL (LenZ usuall posts it :( ), but you might want to do some reading on the FHS, or Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. There's probably some useful linkage at http://www.linuxdoc.org.
The rpm idea sounds great, but I have a heck of a time just getting the tarballs installed. The README files I've seen are quick paragraphs with "do this" "do that" and "have fun", as if I knew what the heck they were talking about. But that's tangent ranting.
I've been there, and come back to visit often. ;) -- -=|JP|=- Jon Pennington | Atipa Linux Solutions -o) jpennington@atipa.com | Kansas City, MO /\\ 816-241-2641 x107 | http://www.atipa.com _\_V -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/