Checking /usr/local/ before upgrading

[Vincenzo Ciancia]

On 28/10/2007 Reinhard Tartler wrote:
> > When should anything go in /usr/local/{bin,lib}?
> 
> E.g. when you are not wanting to upgrade the system later.

/usr/local is the standard place to put non-distribution-managed
software. Debian was the first to fully accomplish this goal by not
installing any distribution package into /usr/local. At the times, AFAIR
and may be proven wrong, other distributions (e.g. redhat) insisted in
putting software installed using rpm in /usr/local, not all but just
some packages, creating a lot of confusion.

Now if I have a package to install from sources, I usually install it in
/usr/local. In any case, if the ubuntu upgrader breaks my system, we
have either to find a way to protect my system from breakage, by
recognizing there's a problem in the ubuntu upgrader, or to document the
fact that /usr/local should NOT be used to install local packages, which
 is normal for any not-so-experienced unix user, and the default choice
of any upstream package using autotools I can think of. Having a
separate directory for each package in /usr/local would create
manutenability problems for library and binary paths, and this is the
same in /.

Vincenzo