> > : 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
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