Where to install program files?

[faustism]

Hello,

I am currently trying to create a Debian package for a source tarball I've been given, and it suggests to be installed in /usr/local/ but if I create a package for it, it shouldn't install there because that should be reserved for locally installed programs.

the suggested directories are as follows:

--prefix=/usr/local/kLPRng --sysconfdir=/usr/local/kLPRng/etc

Thank you.

[alf55]

Then install it into "/usr/".

[faustism]

that doesn't sound quite right though. the only program folders I see in there is the one for brlcad.

[alf55]

There are three sub-trees that have programs.

1. /
2. /usr
3. /usr/local

These all contain subdirectories of

• bin
• sbin
• lib
• include
• share
• Note in 64-bit installs then "lib" is a symbolic link and there are lib64 and lib32 present

The "/" contains stuff that is needed for booting up and shutting down. while "/usr/" contains other applications. And as you said there is "/usr/local" for stuff installed that is specific to the machine.

Why three locations. Back in 1969 when Unix was a baby, the drives were much smaller and this was put together in a way that would guarantee that the items needed to boot and shut down the system were fond on the root filesystem. When drives became larger, often "/usr" is mounted via the network in "real-world" environments (also in those environments often "/home" and "usr/local" are also network mounted.) Latter on SUN MICRO SYSTEMS added "/opt" to the list and it is layed out as "/opt/appliacation/{bin,include,lib,...}".

Even on my notebooks, where is more-or-less me (with a personal and work accounts) I still have "/usr", "/usr/local", "/home", and "/opt" in there own partitions (in my case most are in "logical volumes" as I use LVM). This allows easy migration from one distro to the next over time. I have scripts in "/usr/local/bin" dating back to 1987. I use LVM as it allows resizing of the space without the hassles of the partition table and migrating from a 500GB to a 1TB drive is a lot less painless as I can connect the new drive and add it to the LVM and then LVM that I would like to take the old drive out of service. LVM then moves stuff to the remain drive(s) in that will remain. Some time later, all is moved and I can take the old drive out of the LVM and then the machine and insert my new drive. Yes, I have to partition the new drive, install grub on it, and copy the "/boot" partition to it as well.

[faustism]

Wow, thanks for history lesson. I didn't know it worked like that. I guess I'll install it in the /usr directory after all. Thank you very much for your help.

-Derek

[atreyu]

But watch out! Fedora is going to try and *fix* this confusion.