Who should be logged in when installing the various software - root or user?

- rpm
- compiling source
- apt
- shell scripted installation
- windows software under wine
- others that I'm not aware of?

Are the settings different when you want to make the app available for all users or only specific users? Must the installer be exclusively root only for the "all users" availability?

Are these rules hard and fast or do we need to always look at the README for this info?

TIA.

I install everything as root, unless it is software that I am not sure of (i.e. alpha or beta software, especially those that make network connections). If you install as a user, then other users cannot use whatever you are installing unless you change the permissions. I prefer to install as root, so all users can access the programs. If I only want certain users to be able to access a certain program, I just make a group for those users and set the permissions for the program accordingly.

I am not sure if installing as root is the best procedure, but it is almost necessary for RPM install and compiling/installing from sources.


No. You can set the permissions of the files/directories to allow access to whoever you wish.

I would presume that unless you are installing a program into your home folder you would have to be root, it does not matter if it is a rpm, source code etc, it just depends on your permissions and where you are allowd to write files.

to use application such as apt you also may need to give your user execute permissions on the apt binary.

-JAX