Re: [forward] FHS pre-2.1 draft #3 on web site
"J.H.M. Dassen (Ray)" <jdassen@wi.LeidenUniv.nl> writes:
> On Tue, Sep 21, 1999 at 20:23:00 -0700, Daniel Quinlan wrote:
> > The primary reason distributions are permitted to install software in
> > /opt is that some commercial software may come hard-coded that way.
> > Given the DFSG, that should never apply to Debian.
>
> Not to Debian proper ("main"), but it could well affect the maintainers of
> some of the packages available in the "non-free" section of the Debian
> archives for which no source is available (say Netscape or Acroread).
IMO if a package of this type provides a worthwhile installer of it's
own that puts the software into /opt, and actually works with Debian,
we shouldn't bother with a debian package for it --- just point people
at the upstream package.
If there's enough demand, perhaps mirroring the upstream, and/or
perhaps working out a way for apt-get to grab it for the user might be
nice.
If the upstream doesn't install cleanly on debian, I still don't think
that any debian package should touch /opt.
Otherwise, what happens when the upstream gets their installer sorted
out properly, and a use downloads and installs it into /opt
overwriting the files that dpkg thought belonged to the debianized
version?
Cheers, Phil.
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