At 10:11 1/16/2004, you wrote:
RH and Fedora don't use the same directories as the tarball's and thus you can end up with conflicts if you don't remove traces of the other versions. Configuration files can also be in different directories. [...]
This should be corrected in the future so if there are changes to an application that will benefit a user and there is no official upgrade planned then getting the tarball would be an option. Use the same directories as the tarball/official release.
Red Hat has strived for years to create and follow a standard for file locations, and is I believe also working with the LSB (?) standard for Linux filesystem locations. That standardization is one of the things that has helped it create a logical, consistent OS for most applications... "the good of the many," in fact.
Putting anything wherever it pleases without regard for those nearly 10 years of standardization would be a HUGE loss, all for the (negligible and questionable, IMHO) benefit of letting app developers put files wherever they please. Is that really better than slowly working to standardize all Unices into filesystem locations, so that you can always find all config files in /etc, for example?
I think not.
I don't disagree. With your comments then the issue must be with the developers that are not using RH standards or Linux Standards base <http://www.linuxbase.org/>. They should create their applications and configure them to install in the correct directories according to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/index.html>.
Here it states that add-on applications should be in /opt and further states that "The use of /opt for add-on software is well established practice in the UNIX community"
It also states that /usr is the second major section of the filesystem. /usr/lib is for Libraries. And to further define it states that "/usr/lib includes object files, libraries, and internal binaries that are not intended to be executed directly by users or shell scripts"
Looking at my Fedora installation. OpenOffice is installed in /usr/lib/openoffice. Now I do know that OpenOffice is not a library but an application and thus should be installed in /opt.
I have heard that RedHat wasn't using the standards in the past but as I am trying to say, it should in the future.
I will say that looking up the information to respond has been educational. Why I like looking at these lists. I learn so much.
Of course standards are one of my pet peeves. I like standards. another reason I don't like M$.
-- Robin Laing
