Configuration files

Configuration files

[Christian]

Hi all,
Since I am trying to do more and more in Linux than Windows I just have a question. When installing different programs including Speech-dispatcher the configuration file was not in /etc instead it was in /usr/local/etc. Yes, you can specify the location when running ./configure. Speech-dispatcher is working so no problems but was just wondering. Many programs use the /etc directory for configuration files. Also, when I installed my Debian Lenny system BRLTTY was already installed into /sbin. However, when I downloaded the latest tarball of BRLTTy it installed it to /bin. I moved all related BRLTTY files from /bin to /sbin instead so that BRLTTY would be launched at system start. I am just trying to find the basics of this since it installs to different locations. Glad that it's working and I am learning something new each day! Any clarification would be apreciated.
All the best and thanks,
Christian

Re: Configuration files

[Geoff Shang]

Hi,

A friend of mine is fond of saying the following:

The nice thing about standards is that there's so many to choose from.

The issue here is that different systems have different defaults.  Debian 
packages have a standard place for putting things.  Tarballs usually 
install to /usr/local but not always.  Other systems or distributions will 
install to other places.  I don't have anyhting in /opt on my system for 
example but some do.

You basically have two options.  First, you can put everything in the same 
place so you know where to find it, though you can run into trouble if you 
mix packages with source tarballs.  The second is to let things go where 
they go and live with it.

I usually do the latter, partly because I prefer to install tarballs to 
/usr/local and let packages install to other places, and partly because I'm 
too lazy to bother with configure options, etc.

At the end of the day, as long as the things that need to find your files 
can find them, you'll be OK.

Geoff.

Re: Configuration files

[Lee Maschmeyer]

Also, if you move things around the man pages won't be right.

The old brltty used to live in /sbin but the new one lives in /bin. If 
brltty is currently working, then fine; otherwise what I've done is install 
the tarball and deleted the /sbin version. Putting it in sbin does not mean 
that it'll start automatically; this is handled by the init scripts. I don't 
know where they are on Debian or what to change.

I tae the same approach as Geoff and use either the `locate' command or man 
pages to see where things are.

-- 
Lee Maschmeyer
<lee_maschmeyer@wayne.edu>

"Be kind to your fur-bearing friends,
For a skunk may be somebody's brother."
     --Fred Allen

Re: Configuration files

[Geoff Shang]

Hi,

Also, the various sbin directories (e.g. /usr/local/sbin, /usr/sbin, /sbin) 
usually has files intended for running by root or at least by people who 
know what they're doing.

Geoff.

Re: Configuration files

[Tony Baechler]

I'm not sure what you mean by this.  As long as the man pages are in 
/usr/man/manX where X is the section number or /usr/local/man/manX, the 
man pages should work fine.  Also, you can edit the manpath variable in 
the config file if you want them elsewhere, as well as in most configure 
scripts.  I'm not sure where the config file for man is offhand, but on 
Debian, it's part of the man-db package.

Lee Maschmeyer wrote:
> Also, if you move things around the man pages won't be right.

Re: Configuration files

[Geoff Shang]

Hi,

I think he meant that if you change paths then the locations mentioned in 
the man page won't reflect where the files are on your system.  And I guess 
this goes with the territory if you do something that goes against the 
recommended installation process.

Geoff.

Re[2]: Configuration files

[Christian]

Hi Geoff and all,
many thanks for your reply.
Yes, I have also been a little lazy in dealing with the different configure options and I have usually just run ./configure and I've been fine. I have seen examples with a lot more parameters.
One thing that I did was to edit /etc/apt/list.sources and added the stable version to Debian as well to obtain the glibstdc++2.10 package to run Ttsynth. I used apt-cache to search for the package.
If I do not find a dependency I usually use Google. Any other tip?
All the best and thanks,
Christian



On 2008-02-20 at 17:51 Geoff Shang wrote:

>Hi,
>
>A friend of mine is fond of saying the following:
>
>The nice thing about standards is that there's so many to choose from.
>
>The issue here is that different systems have different defaults.  Debian 
>packages have a standard place for putting things.  Tarballs usually 
>install to /usr/local but not always.  Other systems or distributions will 
>install to other places.  I don't have anyhting in /opt on my system for 
>example but some do.
>
>You basically have two options.  First, you can put everything in the same 
>place so you know where to find it, though you can run into trouble if you 
>mix packages with source tarballs.  The second is to let things go where 
>they go and live with it.
>
>I usually do the latter, partly because I prefer to install tarballs to 
>/usr/local and let packages install to other places, and partly because
>I'm 
>too lazy to bother with configure options, etc.
>
>At the end of the day, as long as the things that need to find your files 
>can find them, you'll be OK.
>
>Geoff.
>
>_______________________________________________
>Blinux-list mailing list
>Blinux-list@redhat.com
>https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list

Re: Configuration files

[Tony Baechler]

Yes, I would agree.  Expanding on this, FreeBSD always installs ports 
under /usr/local no matter what.  This way all files specific to the OS 
go in /etc and all additional ports go in /usr/local/etc.  It's the same 
with documentation, binaries, and such.  Debian never puts anything in 
/usr/local because that is set aside for the local administrator.  
Debian packages are never supposed to touch any files in /usr/local if 
my understanding is correct.  The problem you have with just letting 
things go where they will is that you end up with multiple binaries for 
the same program.  I ran into this with an ftp server.  The Debian 
version went to /usr/sbin and the local version went to 
/usr/local/sbin.  The Debian version kept being called because it was 
first in the path.  Yet another example is Qmail.  It expects a set of 
subdirs under /var/qmail and doesn't go in /usr/local at all, even 
though it probably should.

Geoff Shang wrote:
>
> The issue here is that different systems have different defaults.  
> Debian packages have a standard place for putting things.  Tarballs 
> usually install to /usr/local but not always.  Other systems or 
> distributions will install to other places.  I don't have anyhting in 
> /opt on my system for example but some do.
>
> You basically have two options.  First, you can put everything in the 
> same place so you know where to find it, though you can run into 
> trouble if you mix packages with source tarballs.  The second is to 
> let things go where they go and live with it.
>
> I usually do the latter, partly because I prefer to install tarballs 
> to /usr/local and let packages install to other places, and partly 
> because I'm too lazy to bother with configure options, etc.