Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 11:22:17 -0800 From: Joe Kelsey <joe@zircon.seattle.wa.us> To: current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: /usr/local abuse Message-ID: <14899.55273.863236.40012@zircon.seattle.wa.us> In-Reply-To: <14899.54808.947617.700838@zircon.seattle.wa.us> References: <14898.33404.356173.963351@guru.mired.org> <14898.31393.228926.763711@guru.mired.org> <Pine.BSF.4.21.0012091347030.88984-100000@turtle.looksharp.net> <200012100904.CAA27546@harmony.village.org> <3A336781.94E1646@newsguy.com> <14899.41809.754369.259894@guru.mired.org> <200012101557.KAA29588@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu> <14899.43958.622675.847234@guru.mired.org> <20001210120840.C38697@vger.bsdhome.com> <14899.47196.795281.662619@zircon.seattle.wa.us> <14899.49294.958909.82912@guru.mired.org> <14899.54808.947617.700838@zircon.seattle.wa.us>
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Joe Kelsey writes: > When the BSD started, they tried to distinguish between /usr/local and > /usr/public, but that never took hold. Certainly, when GNU > distributions started, the FSF very quickly took up the then default > (from the long history of standardized distributions in the moderated > unix source newsgroups, both before and after the great renaming) usage > of /usr/local as the place for network distributed software packages. Just as a clarification of the history of the file system hierarchy. BSD started the habit of putting stuff in different directories. 4.2 included /usr/ucb, /usr/local and /usr/public. /usr/public never really caught on as a place to put officially, locally supported software because the default permissions as shipped from Berkeley was 777. Berkeley used it as a catch-all for anything anyone wanted to make available for public consumption (this was an extension of the /usr/pub directory in V6/V7). Because of the default permissions and the problems associated with keeping it safe locally, /usr/public eventually fell out of use. Basically, /usr/local is for anything the local administration wants to officially support. The ports use of this (and by extension, pre-compiled ports (packages)) is thus completely justified. /Joe To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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