Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 18:14:39 -0500 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: "Thomas (Matt) Barton" <matt@fear.net> Cc: <questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: How Is The FeeBSD OS Like and Different Than Say Redhat or Suse LINUX Message-ID: <15076.46943.819845.562426@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0104231728370.6614-100000@fear.net> References: <15076.41600.510678.517464@guru.mired.org> <Pine.LNX.4.33.0104231728370.6614-100000@fear.net>
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Thomas (Matt) Barton <matt@fear.net> types: > On Mon, 23 Apr 2001, Mike Meyer wrote: > > > Actually, everything installs in /usr/local or /usr/X11R6, but only by > > default. You can change both of those defaults globally, and it works > > fairly well. Trying to change it for one package is pretty dicey. > > NetBSD choice of putting things in /usr/pkgs (or some such) instead of > > /usr/local has some advantages. > > I'm mainly happy that it just put it all in one place by default and I can > worry about more important things. It makes it convenient. > > Just out of curiosity, though, what are the advantages about NetBSD using > /usr/pkgs instead of /usr/local? This is a political issue, and comes up every once and a while. Basically, there are some people who feel that packages/ports don't fit under the traditional use of /usr/local. For instance, /usr/opt (where I put /usr/local) is on /usr and gets backed up with /usr. /usr/local is reserved for things that I don't have copies of on the FreeBSD cdroms or CVSUP server, and points at a place that get backed up on a different schedule. Moving packages to /usr/pkgs means we get them split. Those who think they shouldn't be split can just symlink /usr/local to /usr/pkgs, or vice versa, and get what they have now with one extra symlink. The reverse doesn't work. Also, moving packages to /usr/pkgs by default means ports developers have to actually *fix* all the /usr/local dependencies in the port. In general, they do a good job and most are quite prompt about fixing broken ports - especially if you provide them - but it'd be nice if that problem just didn't come up. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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