Question re: file organization

downinthemine · 07-30-2003, 10:19 AM

I got Mandrake working last night on my Dell Inspiron 4000. So far, everything is great. I downloaded and installed both Firebird and Thunderbird. Here's my question, I basically just decompressed them both into directories into my /home/andy directory in their own folders. I am getting the sense that it does not really matter where I install programs under Linux. Is that right?

ksgill · 07-30-2003, 10:57 AM

I dont think it really matters where u install stuff..unless theres a dependency issue..then you have to let other program know where this program is installed. As long as you know where things are..I think you should be okay

downinthemine · 07-30-2003, 11:06 AM

Very helpful. Thanks. One follow-up, do I need to install all programs as root?

acid_kewpie · 07-30-2003, 11:16 AM

Those programs don't have full installers yet, but come prebuilt... both of which is a little unusual. what you should ideally be doing is decompressing the tarballs or whatever to /usr/lib/MozillaFirebird (for example) and then creating a symlink from /usr/lib/MozillaFirebird/MozillaFirebird to /usr/bin/firebird for ease of access.

downinthemine · 07-30-2003, 11:26 AM

Am I correct in thinking that I can log in as root, move the files to /usr/lib/MozillaFirebird/MozillaFirebord, create the link, and maintain my bookmarks, etc?

acid_kewpie · 07-30-2003, 11:28 AM

yeah, as the bookmarks are not kept there, but always on a per user basis, currently in ~/.phoenix i think.

downinthemine · 07-30-2003, 11:28 AM

Thanks. This will all keep me busy tonight.