Perhaps something like the attached patch to the usage message might
be worthwhile (though I think it is probably too wordy).
James.
From 54614d88bc91d0c188108b467fb518c7d3de7c06 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: James Youngman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2008 21:55:50 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] install: indicate clearly it's not for installing packages.
To: bug-coreutils@gnu.org
* src/instrall.c (usage): Indicate the program copies binary files, as
opposed to installing packages.
---
src/install.c | 8 ++++++++
1 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/src/install.c b/src/install.c
index a7c3b3d..a320868 100644
--- a/src/install.c
+++ b/src/install.c
@@ -816,6 +816,14 @@ Usage: %s [OPTION]... [-T] SOURCE DEST\n\
"),
program_name, program_name, program_name, program_name);
fputs (_("\
+\n\
+The install utility copies files (which you will normally have recently\n\
+compiled) into the location you decided to install them. If in fact you\n\
+want to download and install a ready-to-use package instead of compiling it\n\
+yourself, you should probably be using different program. The right choice\n\
+of program depends on your operating system. Popular choices for GNU/Linux\n\
+systems are yum(1) and apt-get(1).\n\
+\n\
In the first three forms, copy SOURCE to DEST or multiple SOURCE(s) to\n\
the existing DIRECTORY, while setting permission modes and owner/group.\n\
In the 4th form, create all components of the given DIRECTORY(ies).\n\
--
1.5.6.5
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