Package: bash
Version: 4.2+dfsg-0.1+deb7u3
Lack of /opt/bin has already been considered in bug 45096, that got closed with
a won't fix indication following the motivation that /opt is used by commercial
software and that any admin installing commercial software should edit his/her
own /etc/profile.
Yet /opt is not just a matter of commercial software. A lot of /free/ software
that is distributed independently from debian uses it.
Most important: a lot of free software that is /packaged/ in deb format
independently from debian and meant to be used in debian + derivatives and in
ubuntu + derivatives uses /opt to avoid conflicting with the distribution.
A notable example is represented by the Libreoffice deb packages that are made
by The Document Foundation and that they invite to use to
- test beta versions and release candidates
- verify that bugs are not dependent on the distribution packaging by verifying
that they exist also in the TDF packaged version
Lack of /opt/bin on the path means that in these packages almost everything is
placed in /opt/<something>, but then, if they want to have some executables on
the path they became 'creative' in potentially bad ways.
For instance TDF has started shipping deb packages that install across /opt and
/usr/local, in order to put stuff in /usr/local/bin.
IMHO, this is a very bad thing, because /usr/local should be the admin play
ground, particularly for locally compiled software and one should never have
packages installing anything there, otherwise automatic actions start happening
with no admin control in an area that should be safe. Furthermore, if there are
packages that install across /usr and /usr/local, it becomes impossible to share
/usr without breakage of these packages.
Thus, anything that is possible should be made to provide these third party
packagers of free software with a place to install executables that is on the
default path and that is not in /usr/local.
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