/usr/local question

[Frank J. R. Hanstick]

Hello,
	There is a problem with having many locations for third party  
installed software and that is dependencies during build and paths to  
those dependencies. Sometimes the problem also crops up when  
applications are opened depending on how the library links are sought  
(this is very very rare; but, does occur). If the build path is hard  
specified for dependencies, then, there is no problem because the  
dependency search will find or not find the dependency at the proper  
location; otherwise, PATH is used and the order of search of PATH will  
determine in which location a particular dependency is found to be  
used, a problem if there is more than one version of a dependency  
active at a time for the different installed port. I have actually had  
this happen a couple of times when trying to install non-MacPorts  
third party software into usr/local and having the dependency found in  
opt/local.

On Apr 4, 2012, at 11:44 AM, Phil Dobbin wrote:

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> On 04/04/2012 19:40, Phil Dobbin wrote:
>> On 04/04/2012 18:30, Saiwing Yeung wrote:
>>> On Apr 4, 2012, at 9:19 AM, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>>>> On Apr 4, 2012, at 11:16, Saiwing Yeung wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> oh... I didn't know that. I just took a look in my
>>>>> /usr/local, and found a whole bunch of stuff for texlive, and
>>>>> then various programs that I remember installing.
>>>>>
>>>>> is there a recommended place for me to put these programs?
>>>>
>>>> Any other place on the hard drive that doesn't already have a
>>>> defined meaning. So any prefix other than /, /usr, /usr/local,
>>>> /opt/local or /sw should be fine.
>>
>>> Thanks!
>>
>>> In addition, I agree with Jan Stary that it would be nice to
>>> amend the #defaultprefix: section in the FAQ. If possible, it
>>> would also be nice to also add this to the "A port fails to
>>> build. What should I do?" section in the FAQ, as the section
>>> title of #defaultprefix is "Why is /opt/local the default install
>>> location for MacPorts?" and if a port fails to build for me, I
>>> probably wouldn't realize that pertinent information is in that
>>> section.
>>
>> If you want to install in directories other than /usr/local to
>> avoid any conflicts with Mac Ports, you could use the other *nix
>> location $HOME/bin.
>>
>> On most, if not all, Linux distros that PATH is already present in
>> ~/.bashrc.
>>
>> You'd probably have to create the directory in /Users/yourname as
>> well as add the above line to your bash_profile but I use $HOME/bin
>> a lot on OS X & Linux. It also has the added advantage of not
>> having to use sudo when installing stuff.
>
> the above (non-existent) line of course being:
>
> `PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin`
>
> :-)
>
> - --
> But masters, remember that I am an ass.
> Though it be not written down,
> yet forget not that I am an ass.
>
> 	Wm. Shakespeare - Much Ado About Nothing
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Frank J. R. Hanstick
trog24 at comcast.net