use of /usr/local by packages

Derek Broughton news at pointerstop.ca
Wed Aug 24 09:45:30 CDT 2005


Alvin Thompson wrote:

> i've noticed that several packages in the distribution place things
> under /usr/local. i'm sure there are more, but these are a few i've run
> across:
> 
> eclipse (plugins)
> python 2.4 (site packages)
> whatever handles firmware
> the font system (caches)
> 
> i always thought it was a major _faux pas_ for a distribution to place

yes.

However, I have no python or font files under /usr/local (I don't have
eclipse, or anything firmware related, so I can't say that they don't use
it), so I'm not sure you can validly complain that it was Ubuntu packages
that did it.

Pick a file in /usr/local, do: dpkg -S filename

Then check the package it lists and make sure that _it_ used /usr/local (of
course, there's nothing to prevent a package installing to a correct
directory and moving files to /usr/local in the postinst, but if you're
still suspicious you could check there too :-)
-- 
derek




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