On Thu, Feb 05, 2004 at 05:15:20PM -0500, M.Hockings wrote: i[...] > I must admit that on more than one occasion I have installed something > in Linux (via RPM and via "make install") and the docs indicate that it > would go to /usr/local/bin/pgm-name but I find it in > /usr/bin/pgm-name. What controls this? Is it an exported (or somehow > retrieved) system setting, the RPM builder, the makefile author, or > what? I have not viewed this an inhibitor to using RedHat, more like I > thought it was my inexperience with Linux leading me astray. [...] Most open source programs I;ve seen (especially, if they're GNU based) have a default installation location of /usr/local/. Many authors just hardcode this location in the documentation. Further, almost all programs have an option to change the installation location at compile time (e.g. all 'configure' based programs via the --prefix switch). rpm can make use of those facilities to change the installation location at build time, e.g. because the author to the "spec" file (which controls how an RPM is built) wants it that way or to make it the same as the preference of the distro. Unfortunately, there aren't many authors who also include a facility to change the installation location *in the documentation*. That means I can install something in /usr/*, while the documentation still points to /usr/local/* - it's up to the author of the program to fix that (or up to the packager to make a patch). Cheerio, Thomas -- ===> Netiquette - read it, use it: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html <=== ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas Ribbrock http://www.ribbrock.org "You have to live on the edge of reality - to make your dreams come true!"
