Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 23:44:36 -0700 (MST) From: Nate Williams <nate@yogotech.com> To: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> Cc: current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: /usr/local abuse Message-ID: <14900.30676.579429.161947@nomad.yogotech.com> In-Reply-To: <14900.30029.845012.721276@guru.mired.org> References: <14900.19591.200496.869754@nomad.yogotech.com> <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> <14899.62738.768609.598990@nomad.yogotech.com> <14899.62189.243395.903919@nomad.yogotech.com> <14900.2598.958785.326648@guru.mired.org> <200012110555.WAA34071@harmony.village.org> <14900.30029.845012.721276@guru.mired.org>
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> > : I know that as recent as 3=4 years ago, Purify installed itself by > > : default in /usr/local, on SunOS and Solaris. Lucid did this as well, > > : although things start getting pretty fuzzy going back that far. :) > > purify and the binary distributions of xemacs installed themselves > > into /usr/local on Solaris in the 1992-1996 time frame. As did *ALL* > > of the software binaries we downloaded from the net. Framemaker > > installed in /usr/local as well in the SunOS 3.5/4.0 time frame. > > Interleaf installed itself in /usr/local on SunOS 4.0/4.1 time frame. > > How much of that software did you get from the OS vendor? Ahh, if we're limiting the discussio to 'OS vendor' software, then every OS vendor I know installs its software in /usr/bin, and /usr/lib. Even Sun does this with it's 'OS vendor' tools. Only 3rd party software installed itself in /usr/local. So, going with the 'OS vendor' argument, then all software should install itself in /usr, and definitely not /usr/local. Non-OS vendor software installs itself all over the place, but Solaris *tries* to keep the software in /opt. > > : > My claims about "history" and "tradition" are attempts to refute > > : > Brandon's assertion that packages going into /usr/local has "years of > > : > tradition behind it." Mostly, it's about what *packages* are, not what > > : > /usr/local was used for. > > : I disagree. > > I do too. > > Exactly what do you disagree with? That I'm arguing about what > packages are? Or my assertion that packages installing in /usr/local > doesn't have years of tradition behind it? > > The former is clearly true. And I've never tried to claim that people > haven't been installing third party software in /usr/local for years And that third party software often installs itself in /usr/local by default. > (though some interpreted my comments about "locally maintained > software" to exclude such). My claim is that the package system has > grown into something other than "something to make installing third > party software more convenient". It is pretty much a direct > translation of some vendors practice of providing precompiled freeware > into an OSS environment. There is no standard for precompiled freeware distributed by OS vendors that I'm aware of. Packages I've downloaded from Sun put themselves *all over* the place, including /opt/local, /usr/gnu, /opt/gnu, /opt, and many other places. I'm not even sure SCO's skunkware has a standard installation directory. > Now, back to /usr/local and tradition - how many OS vendors provide > software that installs in /usr/local. SCO perhaps? DEC did for awhile. Sun may have even done it for some of their 'development' tools on SunOS, so as to not wipe-out the default C compiler in the system. Nate To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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