On Thu, May 18, 2000 at 01:26:40AM +0000, montefin wrote: > Hi all, > > After 6 weeks and a Slink->Potato upgrade, I've got to say I like Debian > a whole lot and am definitely going to move it on up to the big box as > soon as Potato goes stable and CD's are available...
Yea, it's not bad eh? > But*, one tiny, core question remains. Which is it: /usr/src, > /usr/local/source, /usr/local/src? Who uses /usr/local/source? > I don't know, maybe it's the 16 years of Catholic School. I came to > Debian from Red Hat because I'd heard it was more 'canonical', more > 'structured', closer to the 'soul' of Linux and open source. I wanted an > underlying OS that would provide an almost liturgical standard that I > could build upon, develop within, even 'commit sins' with, and still > find it as steady as a rock and willing to forgive. > > Some docs and HOWTO's say to build Linux in /usr/local/source; some > mail, even from this list, mentions /usr/local/src; make-kpkg, I > believe, builds into /usr/src. Sweet 'apt-get --configure source' will > build where ever I happen to be at the moment. > > I asked a well-debbed, not-to-be-named guru why this was and he told me > so that Debian could avoid interference between what it configures and > what some unknown third-party developer or I configure. > > Well, here on the little test box, I chose to put the heads of all > source-trees into /usr/local/source and symlink both /usr/src and > /usr/local/src to /usr/local/source. > > As I prepare to Debianize the big box, it would really help to know > either 'The Correct Way' or 'The Reason(s) Why' for this most basic, > initial, yet essential, decision. I want to start with as 'canonical' a > box as possible so that I can truly be 'free' thereupon. > > So. Which is it: /usr/src, /usr/local/source, /usr/local/src or all of > the above and let the pieces fall where they may? None of the above. I guess some things expect /usr/src/linux for headers, but other than that, just create a spot in your home directory (unless there's a reason you want to make the sources available). Then do the "./configure ; make ; su -c 'make install'" trilogy. Supposedly bad things can happen if you compile things as root (umm, a command like (cd ../../.. ; rm -rf *.o *.so) in a Makefile clean could sure ruin your day!). Even deb kernels can be compiled as a normal user using fakeroot. The general distinction between /usr/local and the rest of /usr under FHS is that /usr/local is the place for all non distribution- maintained software (some would include /opt). -- ¶ One·should·only·use·the·ASCII·characterset·when·compos » ing·email·messages.
