Message-ID: <19981111171016.A28369@engelschall.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 17:10:16 +0100
From: "Ralf S. Engelschall" <rse@engelschall.com>
To: new-httpd@apache.org
Subject: Re: cvs commit: apache-1.3/src CHANGES
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In article <3649AF0C.5D88D41B@Golux.Com> you wrote:
> Ralf S. Engelschall wrote:
>> 
>> > I don't really see how the default APACI layout is any sort of GNU
>> > standard.  What other packages create stuff like:
>> 
>> >   /usr/local/<package>/bin
>> >   /usr/local/<package>/sbin
>> >   /usr/local/<package>/var/log
>> > ??
>> 
>> > I have a box with a whole whack of GNU packages installed with the default
>> > prefix and a 'find /usr/local -type d -name bin -print' only shows a
>> > single bin directory under /usr/local for me apart from a couple of weird
>> > ones inside the Mozilla src tree and expat.  But not a single
>> > /usr/local/<package>/bin directory.
>> 
>> The stuff is described in GNU's `standards.texi' document under `7.2.4
>> Variables for Installation Directories', etc.  There they describe where
>> particular files should go under `prefix': user binaries to bin/, system
>> binaries to sbin/, local state data under var/, etc. pp.

> On my mostly-vanilla RedHat 5.1 system, there's nothing in
> /usr/local/{bin,sbin} that I didn't put there myself by hand, and
> there's no /usr/local/var at all.  Are you suggesting that RH re-did
> each and every GNU tool they include as part of the system installation?
> Maybe they did -- I don't know -- but it would seem odd.

They do. OTOH test it out: Grab a few tools which use GNU Autoconf: gdb, gcc,
gimp, etc. And install them via "./configure; make; make install".  And you
will see that they all follow the GNU paths. 

> It rather sounds like 'standards.texi' (?) is more wishful thinking
> about guidelines than an actual set of commonly-followed conventions.

No, I don't think this is the case. Mostly all tools follow it.  But you're
right: Most of the authors didn't recognize that they follow it ;-)

                                       Ralf S. Engelschall
                                       rse@engelschall.com
                                       www.engelschall.com