[ale] IRC and directory structure questions

[Dow Hurst]

LSB, or Linux Standard Base, is a project to standardize the file and 
directory layout for Linux.  I think the project extends beyond just 
that but many distro's are LSB compliant.  Basically you can put stuff 
in your home directory to your hearts content.  Most people compile in 
their own directory and install to /usr/local since that directory is 
for your local software and not what came with your system.  Some 
packages will prefer to be in /opt.  I never liked that unless /opt is a 
partition to itself or I just used the whole disk as a single / 
partition.  /opt is a place most distro's use for optional third party 
packages that come standard with your distribution such as KDE, Gnome, 
or IBM Java stuff.  My personal favorite place to put locally compiled 
user shared software is in /usr/local.

I don't IRC at all due to firewall and security constraints so don't 
have any facts/opinions on that.

Look at your Windows knowledge base as a crippling factor and as the 
"wrong way to do things" since everyone is root on the system. ;-) 
 Notice that there is definitely a lot of thought put into the file 
system layout of Linux/Unix.  Most directories under Linux have a 
purpose for the base operating system consisting of user binaries 
(/usr/bin), root and daemon binaries (/bin,/sbin), libraries 
(/lib,/usr/lib), system documentation 
(/usr/share/packages,/usr/catman,/usr/man), and logs (/var/log).  Third 
party packages usually end up in separate directories from these so not 
to mix up stuff that shouldn't be mixed.  This allows finer control over 
access to the system.  Most people really have a brain damaged view of 
their system in that they believe reinstalling is a normal way to fix 
problems.  That is really a pisspoor way to have to deal with problems 
on a highly customized computer!  You'll have the pleasure of forgetting 
that method as your knowledge increases of Linux and decreases of Windows.

VMware should probably have for each or all OS a definite layout such as 
/vmware/win98/, /vmware/nt4.0/ that you choose.  Increase performance by 
giving vmware its own disk spindle and controller for performance if 
your serving out instances of Windows.  You can put vmware OS files 
wherever you want, just keep it organized!

Matthew Brown wrote:

> 1.    Do any of you IRC much?  Where is a good place to go for this - 
> that doesn't have all the porn/file sharing/etc.  I am mainly 
> interested in technical IRC.
>  
> 2.    Is there an accepted standard for laying out files in a 
> directory structure?  For example, say I have a .tar.gz file I want to 
> download.  It is, say, vmware-yada-yada.tar.gz.  Where would you put 
> it?  ~/...?   Where do you install it to?    /usr/...?
>  
> 3.    Now let's talk about the actual data files for something like 
> vmware...  These would need to be shared for many users.  Would it go 
> under /opt/... or /var/...?
>  
> Coming from the Windows background, this issue has always confused 
> me.  I suppose I could have created my own set of directories, but 
> that would create more mayhem!
>  
> Hope you're having a great day!
>  
> Best regards,
> Matthew Brown, President
> CorData, Inc.
> O: (770) 795-0089
> F: (404) 806-4855
> E: matthew.brown at cordata.com <mailto:matthew.brown at cordata.com>
>  


-- 
__________________________________________________________
Dow Hurst                  Office: 770-499-3428
Systems Support Specialist    Fax: 770-423-6744
1000 Chastain Rd., Bldg. 12
Chemistry Department SC428  Email:dhurst at kennesaw.edu
Kennesaw State University         Dow.Hurst at mindspring.com
Kennesaw, GA 30144
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*Computational Chemistry is fun!*
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