On Sun, 15 May 2011 18:00:50 +0200, Lennart Poettering
<[email protected]> wrote:
> I already have trouble enough understanding why we currently have both
> /usr/local and /opt. Both appear to be places for 3rd party software,
> but use different layouts. I am tempted to say that we should just get
> rid of /usr/local.
Well... they're quite similar.... :)

Actually I was very impressed how you "got through" with the introduction
of /run ;-) ... and it could be possible to convince people in dropping
/opt,.. but I doubt that you'll get them to drop /*/local.
It's just used in too many places (e.g. default PREFIX for thousands of
open source projects.)

Have you had a look at the proposal for a "definition" on how /usr,
/usr/local and /opt could be related/defined?


> That said, /opt appears like a pretty badly though out
> solution. i.e. any package you install there which need drop in files
> in some system dirs (i.e. dbus service, pk policy and so on), also needs
> to add something to /etc or /usr, so I really wonder what the point of
> the separation here.
This is a good point,... but don't forget that by far not all programs
(and especially "3rd party binary packages" make use of dbus/pk/ck/etc.
And sysadmins tend to prefer keeping these things separated from the
normal system.

e.g. if I get proprietary Mathematica, or Dell Management software ... I
really don't want them to put any stuff in /usr or /usr/local (where their
stuff could get accidentally in my PATH)... but I'm quite happy to
"isolate" it in /opt


> For example the XDG basedir spec ignores /opt completely, but includes
> /usr/local in the default search paths.
Personally I don't like adding /usr/local in the search paths (mostly for
security reasons).


Cheers,
Chris.
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