[plug] Easy Installation: Linux Desktop Market

[Alex Nordstrom]

Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:32, simon wrote:
> What is the idea behind /opt?
>
> I cant see any reason for having it, isnt that what /usr/local is
> for?

Having done a little more thinking and reading, here's the justification 
for it (which doesn't mean I think it's a good idea):

/usr is for the package management system and may be mounted read-only
/usr/local is for the local admin
/opt is for ISVs

/usr/local/opt would be a more elegant solution (it would allow a small 
root partition without another partition in addition to usr [and 
possibly /usr/local]), but we're stuck with an old convention.

Alternatively, by analogy to /usr/local, it might be more logical for it 
to be /usr/opt (which you could still make a separate rw partition even 
if your /usr is ro, just like one does with /usr/local.

I suppose the root of my disliking of /opt stems from its internal 
structure, which in turn is due to the ISV way of doing things. So 
we're back at the original point here, which is that package management 
is inherently superior to ad-hoc installation of software that is not 
tailored to its operating environment.

-- 
Alex Nordstrom
http://lx.n3.net/
Please do not CC me in followups; I am subscribed to plug.
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