On Tue, 2010-06-22 at 20:14 -0700, Tom wrote:
> > > /usr/bin/ocropus sounds like it was installed from a package rather
> > > than from the sources.  The ocropus command itself is pure C++ and
> > > doesn't use Python.
> >
> > It's /usr/bin/ocropus-pages and /usr/local/bin/ocropus for me.
> > Wouldn't it be more consistent to use only /usr or only /usr/local?
> 
> Well, the standard for manually installed software is to go into /usr/
> local.  The reason ocropus-pages ends up in /usr is because that's
> what Python's setup.py does by default.
> 
> I don't think it would be a good idea to start installing the C++
> commands into /usr/bin.  On the other hand, I also don't think it's
> good to tinker with the setup.py paths because that probably breaks
> something.  Overall, I think it's probably best to just live with the
> inconsistency for now (it doesn't seem to be causing any significant
> problems).
> 
> Tom
/usr/bin/python setup.py install --prefix=/usr/local
is supposedly all it takes to change the root of the installation.
The only problem I can think of might be on systems that lack
a /usr/local/lib/python type directory.  I don't know how the distutils
handle that.

I agree this isn't a major matter.  However, I think consistency just
makes things easier to understand.  There are a number of other
reasons /usr/local seems like the right choice:
1. It's conventional, as you said.
2. alpha level software is a particularly good kind of software to keep
out of /usr.
3. Installations into /usr could potentially be masked by previous
installations into /usr/local.
4. On Debian and, I assume, derivatives like Ubuntu, /usr is supposed to
be managed entirely by the package management system.  Other software is
supposed to stay out.
5. Because of 4, and general Filesystem Hierarchy Standards, /usr may
not get backed up while /usr/local is.

Ross

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