Re: Installation-issues

[dannys@poboxes.com]

>it to put them. (Or an equivelent if you don't use autoconf).  When doing
>an RPM build the spec file can set the prefix to /usr/.  Actually putting
>all these things in /usr/ annoys me and I am only going along with it
>because it seems standard. I would recommend making it a relocatable
>package except that would mean effort.

I don't know the real reason why people put it in /usr, but I'll give
my own experiences...  I originally used Slackware, and in trying to
maintain software and such, I eventually ended up doing something like
making /opt/appname, and linking necessary files from /opt/appname to
/usr/local.  This made it a lot easier to keep track of applications,
and upgrades and such.

When I moved over to RedHat, I found that all this was rather
unnecessary because of the package manager.  Keeping all packaged
files in /usr is a lot easier to deal with maintanence-wise.  And if I
have to refer to the files in a package for whatever reason, "rpm -qf"
or "rpm -qlf" work quite nicesly.

Now, I try my best to keep non-packaged stuff in /usr/local, and
packaged stuff in /usr.

The only reason I can see for keeping applications seperated in /opt
is to make it easier to support multiple partitions/mounts.  I suppose
changing your environment between several versions of apps is also
easier using /opt.  Granted, these are rather major reasons...
Anyways, neither bother me that much.  I'm only against people making
packages and sticking them in /usr/local/.