[ale] /USR vs. /USR/LOCAL

Jim Kinney jim.kinney at gmail.com
Thu May 29 23:00:50 EDT 2008


In general, stuff that ships with or is provided by the distribution goes in
/usr whereas stuff you compile yourself goes in /usr/local.

/usr/local even has i's own etc and you can put local-brewed start up
scripts and configs there.

For nearly all current systems, the path will have /usr/local BEFORE /usr so
your compiled stuff will get found first.

There are some oddball things (like java)  that don't go in /usr/bin or
/usr/local/bin but they get handled by separate path structures.

For new users the key directories to understand are /home (and the "dot"
files in $HOME) and probably /usr/share (where things like docs and pixmaps
and desktop backgrounds hide!) are good things to know about. The basics of
the structure (i.e. no more C:) and things like unmount before eject (most
current distros will do it for you) and the general separation of privileges
(i.e. root is dangerous unless you are careful) are good topics to look at
as well.

2008/5/29 Marc Ferguson <mferguson at digitalalias.net>:

> Hi,
>
> *What is the difference between /usr and /usr/local?
> *
> I'm very excited that my wife has finally joined the linux community
> (through openSUSE 10.3).  Now that I have to hold her hand for almost
> everything she does with the system, she asks lots of questions and /usr vs.
> /usr/local totally stumps me.  I thought I knew, but trying to explain it to
> her helped me realize that I don't know the difference.  Thanks.
>
> --
> Marc F.
>
> "..Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come.."
> -Rev1:4
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>
>


-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
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