Where do you install software?

**JoeyJoeJoe** · 07-29-2007, 03:45 AM

Wondering this after having installed RealPlayer from a .bin file.

When prompted, I installed to /usr/share in a folder I created called RealPlayer.

Does it matter where I choose to install software? Any best practice here?

Thanks,
JJJ

**pbharris** · 07-29-2007, 03:57 AM

hello,
while you can install it anywhere, installing it in /usr/local or /opt is a good choice.

**Schotty** · 07-29-2007, 08:36 AM

I may take alot of heat for this comment but here it goes.

On a desktop for home use, it is quite irrelevant really. I have always had two or three partitions (which is why it may matter to home users at all) and it was always root swap home. On servers such as remote application or authentication servers, well now it could. Important tools need to be backed up and if you stick to what Paul said, chances are it wont be missed in a regular backup (which again matters to the corporate settings rather than regular schmucks like us just using it on our basement family PC).

For me, whatever they choose as the default is just fine and dandy

**masinick** · 09-06-2007, 01:34 AM

Originally Posted by Schotty

I may take alot of heat for this comment but here it goes.

On a desktop for home use, it is quite irrelevant really. I have always had two or three partitions (which is why it may matter to home users at all) and it was always root swap home. On servers such as remote application or authentication servers, well now it could. Important tools need to be backed up and if you stick to what Paul said, chances are it wont be missed in a regular backup (which again matters to the corporate settings rather than regular schmucks like us just using it on our basement family PC).

For me, whatever they choose as the default is just fine and dandy

On your own system, obviously you can do whatever you want to do. Joeyjoejoe was looking for best practice though. In the many years of experience I have had in both UNIX and Linux systems, /usr/local is most widely recognized as the place to put any software that doesn't come standard on the system. That is a twenty year tradition (at least) and well recognized.

Others, especially those with a Sun Solaris background, may be inclined to use the /opt file system.

It becomes a nit if you have separately mounted file systems for each. One argument against /opt is that if you do not explicitly create a /opt partition this approach quickly fills up your root partition. However, if you do what most people do and simply create one partition for the entire distribution and another one for swap, this, too, becomes a nit.

Being a purist, best practice, historically speaking is to use /uar/local. Further, best practice is to have separate disk partitions for /, /usr, /usr/local, /var, /tmp, and swap at a minimum. I would do this and more on any business system. On a home system, dump 'em all in the same place unless you are serious about managing it. IF you ARE serious, create a separate /usr/local partition and manage it.