unregistered files/modules

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Oct 10, 2007, at 00:11, David Epstein wrote:

> Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>
>> A-ha! Revelation! You have things in /opt/local that did not come
>> from MacPorts!...[snip]...
>>
>> MacPorts likes to be in almost complete control of its prefix, likes
>> to know what's in it. (It's fine to keep some config files there, but
>> having other software there that MacPorts doesn't know about is not
>> ok.) Paul's advice is good -- move /opt/local out of the way.
>> However, you cannot move a directory into itself. So, try "mv /opt/
>> local /opt/local-old"
>
> I'll move /opt/local aside, as you and Paul Beard suggest.
>
> But I have the impression that quite a number of non-macports  
> packages want
> to be placed in /opt/local, and even do so without asking  
> permission. So
> this could conflict with what you say about MacPorts wanting to keep
> /opt/local/ to itself. I have certainly been advised by people who  
> know a
> lot more about software than I do, that downloaded software should  
> go into
> /opt/local/.

I'm not aware of any software, other than MacPorts, that uses /opt/ 
local by default. If you know of any, please let us know their names.

/usr/local, not /opt/local, is the standard location for user- 
installed software on a system, and is the default for many packages.