Which is the best place to install programs?

guarriman · 11-27-2004, 08:22 AM

Hi.

I'm newbie in this Linux world, and wonder where the best place
to install programs is.

For instance, I installed (as root) Firefox on '/home/my_user/firefox/',
but Acrobat Reader suggested to be installed on '/usr/local/acroreader'.

Which is the best place? Thank you very much.

iZvi · 11-27-2004, 08:51 AM

Probably /usr/local/ is better. It depends on whether you plan to make it available to all users or only to one. If it goes to /home/USERNAME it will be available only to user USERNAME and root. If it is in /usr/local it will be globally available.
I think you should put it in /usr/local .

Mega Man X · 11-27-2004, 08:51 AM

Hi there guarriman!

It's a matter of taste, really. However, I would not install anything at /home and most likely, everything at /usr/local/share. Some would say /usr/opt/. Well, whatever you do, put somewhere at /usr/

. By doing so, you just have to install the program once (as Firefox) and all other users will be able to use it. It also makes things much more organized that way too...

But then again, it's all up to you

.

Slovak · 11-27-2004, 09:03 AM

I would use either the /usr or /opt for installing applications and 3rd party software.

hob · 11-27-2004, 10:27 AM

I think that the Acrobat Reader default is based on other UNIXes that use /usr/local for different things than Linux.

On Linux /usr/local is for manually compiled software, and /opt is for third-party binaries. So /opt.