From: wirzeniu@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Lars Wirzenius) Subject: Re: Discussion: FS tree for large packages Date: 14 Oct 1992 12:25:59 GMT
jbthiel@ogicse.ogi.edu (John B. Thiel) discusses various approaches to
where large packages should be installed.
There are two approaches when deciding where programs should go during
installation: 1) maintain compatibility with other systems and
familiarity for users, and 2) do it "right", even if it is different
from everybody else.
There are undoubtedly a large number of people on either both side. I
personally lean towards the traditional approach, since it leads to
fewer problems when porting programs, and also because putting packages
into lots of different places leads to huge PATHs, MANPATHs, info-paths
(for GNU info), etc.
I would personally prefer to have a scheme where packages are installed
in such a way that all installed files are logged into a database, which
can be used during uninstallation to decide which files should be
deleted. I have played around with a few ideas to implement this, but
don't have the time to make it work properly.