Re: Should non-free and contrib packages install to /opt?
Fabrizio Polacco writes:
> We should stop considering that things packaged in .deb are "delivered
> by Debian". Also other people can (should) start packaging their own
> stuff in .deb , and providing a clear policy on how to do (installing
> under /opt) would be a service for the community.
I disagree: it is an important property of debian that it is an "open"
system in that "we" have not monopolized /usr.
We have the "official" debian tag to emphasize what we endorse, and we have
tools such as lintian to aid local installations to check whether they
goofed up...
> We should start packaging non-free stuff as an example. The ideal would
> be that people creating non-free programs will package them into /opt by
> themselves. But I don't hold my breath. I think in some case we have to
> drop the "official" DD hat and wear the hat of the "third party".
Please don't restart this -- any administrator knows what a mess it is to
maintain systems with 10? 50? 1000? packages in /opt with the resulting
unbounded PATH lengths and messy global setup files. Then people start
changing their PATH manually to include the programs their neighbour uses
and ... before you know it there is no consistency in the user setup and
you cannot answer questions without knowing the PATH, LIBPATH, INCLUDEPATH
used for compilations, etc. etc.
Think about the "bug" reporting system ... it is *really* nice that it
largely suffices to have the package installation list to answer most
problems!
Just my .02 euro,
Kristoffer
--
Kristoffer Høgsbro Rose, phd, prof.associé <http://www.ens-lyon.fr/~krisrose>
addr: LIP, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 46 Allée d'Italie, F-69364 Lyon 7
phone: +33(0)4 7272 8642, fax +33(0)4 7272 8080 <Kristoffer.Rose@ENS-Lyon.FR>
pgp f-p: A4D3 5BD7 3EC5 7CA2 924E D21D 126B B8E0 <krisrose@{debian,tug}.org>
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