FreeTDS Development Group

["Lowden, James K" <LowdenJK AT bernstein.com>]

> From: Brian Bruns [mailto:camber AT ais.org]
> Sent: June 12, 2002 11:56 AM

> > > --prefix=/usr or --prefix=/usr/local to place the libs in a 
> > > path that is searched.  
> > 
> > Naively I ask: should /usr/local be the
> > default prefix?  
> 
> The historical (or is it hysterical?) reasons basically 
> revolve around the
> interfaces file.  Since $SYBASE/interfaces is the expected 
> place it makes
> sense to contain this in a directory of some sort instead of having
> /usr/interfaces or /usr/local/interfaces cluttering up 
> peoples file trees ;-)
> 
> I believe that beginning with 0.53 we no longer install the interfaces
> file by default (a point to mention in the UG maybe?)

Sure enough, yup.  Memo to file.  

> instead only
> install the freetds.conf/locales.conf in $sysconfdir.  This 
> works well for
> the /usr/local arrangement, since there is typically a 
> /usr/local/etc but
> for /usr what may be wanted is something like
> 
> ./configure --with-prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc/freetds
> 
> My personal opinion is that /usr is no place for third party software
> packages, so the /usr/local option is preferred.

I personally don't care for /usr/local/etc.  Since /etc contains all sorts
heavily edited site-specific stuff, OS upgrades and such worth their salt
won't overwrite it willy-nilly, they way they -- rightly -- do with /usr.
So, while there are clear reasons to segregate binaries, the same can't be
said for configuration files.  I suppose there could be permissions issues,
but it seems to me that they're immediately solved by /etc/freetds/.  

I don't know the FHS has to say on the question.  Does my opinion contradict
prevailing sentiment?  

Seems to me, based on what you and Steve said, that 

./configure --with-prefix=/usr/local

would be a better default option than what we have now (and is what the RPMs
do), and 

./configure --with-prefix=/usr/local --sysconfdir=/etc/freetds

makes the most sense to me.  

If you're interested/willing to make one of those changes, I think 0.60 is a
good time to do it.  It would remove one step from the installation and
about 400 words from the UG.  

--jkl