hi,

William F Pokorny <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> On 10/11/19 9:25 AM, jr wrote:
> > Dick Balaska <dic### [at] buckosoftcom> wrote:
> >> On 10/11/19 7:22 AM, jr wrote:
> >>> Dick Balaska <dic### [at] buckosoftcom> wrote:
> >>>> ...
> >>>> For me, on debian/ubuntu/mint, povray/qtpovray ends up at
> >>>> /usr/share/povray-3.7
> >>>> /usr/share/qtpovray-3.8
> >>> weird.  neither is "system" software, so should go under '/usr/local' (or
> >>> '/opt'), aiui.
> >>
> >> /usr/share: Architecture-independent (shared) data.
> >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard
> >
> > thanks.  could have sworn there's a section 7 man page too, but cannot find it
> > now.  :-(
> >
> >> I have 351 directories of foo under /usr/share
> >> /usr/local is for stuff I build myself.  I didn't, I installed the
> >> "official" debian package.
> >>
> >> /opt is for optional.   Good for whole self contained self-downloaded
> >> packages.  Like /opt/eclipse and /opt/Qt.
> >
> > still, strange choice.  conflict between build system and packaging tool?  in my
> > (nvh) opinion, the packages should install under '/usr/local', and the
> > "architecture independent" stuff under '/usr/local/share'.
> >
> > wrt '/opt', _if_ POV-Ray installed as '/opt/povray/{bin,etc,share}', I'd be ok
> > with that too.
> >
> > if you create your own (qtpovray) package, does that differ from the official
> > package?  (blame the maintainer!  ;-))
> >
> >> I'm curious, on your slackware system, where do your *.vim files live?
> >> (like filetype.vim)  The povray %INSTALLDIR% is a cousin of that.
> >
> > '/usr/share/vim'.  however, the editor is (of course) part of the system s/ware.
> >
> > regards, jr.
> >
>
> With respect to /opt/<package>, on my Ubuntu system at the moment I have
> the /opt mount point, but nothing there. When you install something like
> /opt/eclipse, does that install update PATH and so on for everyone on
> the system?
>
> The user PATH is set up already with /usr/bin and /usr/local/bin so an
> executable placed in either of those directories naturally gets picked up.
>
> With respect to the povray etc directory, I think builds are hard coded
> to look for it and those two files, but uncertain of details. If
> correct, it means any change will be more than just deleting that
> povray.conf line. We'd need to find another home for those /etc files.
>
> I'm not very familiar with the package build process, but for my
> /usr/local installs the necessary /etc directory was created - povray
> stuff 3.7 and 3.8 versions is all that's there. Does this sort of
> directory creation not happen on /usr/share distribution package installs?
>
> Is perhaps <>/etc out of favor as a directory these days?

can only answer one of the questions.  typically a package installing in '/opt'
provides a 'somepackage.{sh,csh}' to go into '/etc/profile.d' where the shell
picks it up on login; Qt5 is an example, all it does is set an environment
variable and append the PATH.

like you, I never had "trouble" with POV-Ray installing under '/usr/local', it
just works.  why would/should the 'povray.{conf,ini} not go under
/usr/local/etc'?


regards, jr.

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