On Sun, May 15, 2011 at 06:00:50PM +0200, Lennart Poettering wrote:
> I already have trouble enough understanding why we currently have both
> /usr/local and /opt. Both appear to be places for 3rd party software,
> but use different layouts.

the difference in layouts is exactly the point why both exists.

/opt is for those who do not follow the layout required for /usr/local,
like for applications only available in binary that can not be adapted
to the /usr/local layout by the sysadmin, or for applications ported to
unix/linux where the developers can't be bothered to adapt the layout.

my personal rule of thumb is: /usr/local for stuff built from source,
/opt for 3rd party stuff only available as binary.

as a practical consideration i usually link /opt to /usr/local/opt
because i don't want them in the root partition, but in the local
partition for backup and restore reasons. (/ and /usr can easely be
restored by reinstalling, but /usr/local and /opt can't)

greetings, martin.
-- 
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pike programmer      working in china                   community.gotpike.org
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Martin Bähr          http://www.iaeste.at/~mbaehr/               is.schon.org
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