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  • From: "Lowden, James K" <LowdenJK AT bernstein.com>
  • To: "'TDS Development Group'" <freetds AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: UG clarification
  • Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 12:46:36 -0400


> 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




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