At 03:57 PM 4/26/2002, Charles Wilson wrote:
>Larry Hall (RFK Partners, Inc) wrote:
>
>
>>I'm not sure why this makes more sense for this package than it would for
>>any package. So, to me, this is not a requirement for generating this package or at
>least not at this time, unless somebody can point out how
>>this package would be considered "special" in this regard.
>>In general, I don't see the advantage to having many "bin" directories,
>>at least insofar as it moves toward separate bin directories for every
>>package. It would just lead to the proliferation of directories in PATH or many
>complaints on this list stating "I installed X but when I run it,
>>it says 'X: command not found'!!!" I'd rather avoid either of these alternatives.
>
>
>Funny you should use 'X' as your variable. Think /usr/X11R6/bin/...
Yep, I'm good at things like that! ;-)
>I agree, we shouldn't worry too much about keeping /bin "clean" -- although
>distributions are moving towards putting stuff into /opt/pkg/* and making symlinks
>these days.
>
>However, IMO netpbm, like XF86, is a special case -- how many other packages have 223
>executable files and scripts? ("KDE" doesn't count; the KDE environment consists of
>lots of different packages; netpbm is one integral unit (or at most 4). And besides,
>doesn't KDE install into its own tree?)
OK, if you want to use the yardstick of "What's the convention on UNIX" as
a guideline, I guess that makes sense, excluding the free-for-all idea of
putting all packages in /opt/ptg/* and symlinking. Is there any de-facto
standard directory tree for netpbm in the UNIX world? If so, then maybe
it's worth adopting. If not, then I say it's best to just lump it all in
/usr/bin with everything else. Since it's an optional package, the number
of users that might prefer it otherwise will be a percentage of a percentage
of those who choose to install it. They can be accommodated by providing a
script with the package that moves the files elsewhere if this becomes a big
issue, no?
Larry Hall [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RFK Partners, Inc. http://www.rfk.com
838 Washington Street (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office
Holliston, MA 01746 (508) 893-9889 - FAX
