FreeBSD for Linux users

[Tillman Hodgson]

On Mon, Dec 01, 2003 at 04:07:47PM -0500, Bill Moran wrote:
> >The location of the config directory isn't the only thing that looks
> >strange to them. The linux executables, as well, traditionally go in /bin
> >(or /sbin). It seems that someone migrating from linux would find it more
> >familiar to have ports' PREFIX set to / (instead of /usr/local). The
> >disadvantages are: 1. risk of filling the / slice (which is typically very
> >small on FreeBSD and very big on most linux distros). 2. a port file
> >overrunning a same-named file in the base system. Some people find it
> >easier to keep these two things in mind than to get used to the idea of
> >/usr/local.
> 
> In my experience, I haven't seen anyone have trouble with this, I would
> assume the reason is that they seldom need to know where the binaries are.
> As long as their path looks for them, they'll run and nobody's the wiser.

Additionally, the the FHS specifies "/opt" for this purpose. It's likely
either an older distribution or a distribution that follows RedHat in
ignoring /opt if one sees /bin being uses.

And /opt maps nicely to /usr/local in concept.

-T


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