Re: [kde] setting an /opt precedent

[Erik Steffl <steffl@bigfoot.com>]

"Eray Ozkural (exa)" wrote:
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> Hi Jeff,
> 
> On Thursday 17 January 2002 21:44, Jeff Licquia wrote:
...
> > We cannot currently ensure that a package installing to /opt cannot
> > overwrite admin-installed software there.
> >
> 
> Thanks for the explanation. That's a quite vague statement. How does one
> modify or delete software ... without the assent of the local system
> administrator? After all, it is the local system administrator who runs the
> packaging commands. Theoretically, there isn't much difference between
> running dpkg or rm. Moreover, if you consider the context of the above quote:

  there is a big difference, when you use rm you tell it specific
file(s) to delete, when you use dpkg you do NOT have control over
individual files.

>        Distributions may install software in /opt, but should not modify or
>        delete software installed by the local system administrator without the
>        assent of the local system administrator.
> 
> It would seem to imply for instance if I have installed a package foo in
> /opt/foo, the system must not overwrite files in /opt/foo without my
> knowledge. However, this paragraph doesn't seem to be very consistent to me
> since distributions can be said to provide the "assent of local system
> administrator" in any case... It's a matter of interpretation.

  not really. it means that software must provide a way for sysadmin to
specify where to install stuff if it plans to install anything into
/opt.

	erik