LSB and FHS (was Re: [Gllug] tar.gz)

[Richard Cottrill]

There's a guide on the Sun Big Admin site that recommends just sym-linking
/opt and /usr and be done with the whole charade... Of course I printed it
so that when I lose my copy I'll have no idea where to get a new one (or any
way to post a link :)

Are there any particular drawbacks to this plan? I imagine it's potentially
possible to have files being over-written; but it does seem to clear up a
lot of confusion. I know of at least one product that installs in different
directories on different UNIXes. As I tend to use different UNIXes (3-6
different versions depending on how you count) every day I've sym-linked
them into Frankenstein-ien septuplets. In this case I know that the
installations are otherwise sane so there's no weird jumping on files.

I know one person who suggested using hard links where possible because
they're more efficient - but I prefer the clarity of symlinks. Comments on
style here?

Richard

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gllug-admin at linux.co.uk [mailto:gllug-admin at linux.co.uk]On Behalf
> Of tet at accucard.com
> Sent: Friday, February 01, 2002 4:16 PM
> To: gllug at linux.co.uk
> Subject: Re: LSB and FHS (was Re: [Gllug] tar.gz)
>
>
>
> >So, I could well be wrong then: /opt is for "Add-on application
> >software packages", and /usr/local for hand installed programs. Which
> >raises the question: why does everything either get dumped in the main
> >tree or in /usr/local? Surely other than the base system everything
> >should appear in /opt if installed from a package?
>
> My take on it is that anything vendor supplied should go in the main
> tree, whereas third party software (e.g., Oracle, WordPerfect, etc.)
> should go in /opt. Some distributions (e.g., SuSE, IIRC) make an
> arbitrary decision to put some packages into /opt. IMHO, that's the
> wrong decision, but no doubt they have their reasons.
>
> Tet
>
> --
> Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at linux.co.uk
> http://list.ftech.net/mailman/listinfo/gllug
>


-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at linux.co.uk
http://list.ftech.net/mailman/listinfo/gllug