[ale] File System for Newbs

[Michael B. Trausch]

On Tue, 28 Jul 2009, Marc Ferguson wrote:

> Hi Folks,
>
> I'd like some guidance in figuring out where do I install programs? I got
> some flack from a group in a #songbird IRC channel for putting the package
> in /usr/local/share/applications.  The nice one, pointed me to Red Hat docs
> and from there I found my way to pathname.com.  I think I've seen this site
> before, but it's a bit too long for my taste. I started to look through it
> and fell by the wayside.
>
> http://proton.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html
>
> After my reading, I'm confused. It looks like applications should be
> installed in the /opt folder.  I could be totally wrong, in my thinking, but
> I don't want to install apps in my /home directory.  Thanks.

It depends on how you think of things.

If it is something you will often use, I would "./configure && make && make 
install" -- that is, install it with a prefix of /usr/local.  That is what the 
/usr/local tree is there for.

However, if it is something that you need isolated for whatever reason, or 
it's easier to do it isolated (like a phone switch) I install in /opt.  So, 
for example, I run FreeSWITCH at home, and I have that installed in 
/opt/freeswitch on my server.

The advantage of /usr/local is that (on Ubuntu, anyway) it is ahead of 
/usr/bin in the search path.  So if you are upgrading things, installing in 
/usr/local is good; I run an automake and valac in /usr/local on my system.

 	--- Mike