[Fink-devel] /usr/local/fink

[Brian Kendig]

About the '/sw' directory where Fink gets installed, the Fink FAQ says, "If you have a better suggestion, post it to the fink-devel mailing list." I have a better suggestion, so I'm following the directions. :-)

My suggestion is to use the directory '/usr/local/fink' instead of '/sw' as the default for Fink.

'/usr/local' is the well-established place to put software that's not part of the system distribution. The FAQ says this, too. But what the FAQ doesn't acknowledge is that not every piece of local software has to fit into '/usr/local/bin', '/usr/local/include', and the other directories where they might conflict with each other...

My system has '/usr/local/apache', '/usr/local/analog', '/usr/local/exim', '/usr/local/ssl', and other directories which contain source code and program data for various applications that don't want to be stepped on by other applications. All these directories coexist independently, yet they're all under '/usr/local' so I know exactly where to find all of my site-specific installations, and I can make a backup of that one directory and everything below it without accidentally forgetting to back up some other directory that's used by some other application.

Also, I don't like that with Fink installed, the top-level directory of my hard drive contains lots of folders whose purpose is clear -- 'Applications', 'Developer', 'Library', 'System', 'Users', etc. -- then this one 'sw' folder with its ambiguous name. It just doesn't make sense to create a new top-level directory for Fink.

____ |\/| Brian Kendig Set your priorities right.
\ /\ / ..__. brian at enchanter net No one ever said on his
\/ \__\ _/ http://www.enchanter.net/ death bed, "Gee, if I'd
\__ __ \_ Be insatiably curious. only spent more time at
\____\___\ Ask "why" a lot. the office."



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