Re: tlug: About libraries

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

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tlug note from "Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>
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>>>>> "Chistophe" == Chistophe Gimenez <chris@example.com> writes:

    Chistophe> I'm using the Linux FT distribution. It's a good one
    Chistophe> since I've set up a Web server from trash and I have
    Chistophe> very little problems with it.  I've upgraded from 1.2.x
    Chistophe> to 2.0.27 without problems but more I use it and more I
    Chistophe> find that there are a lot of directories whose meaning
    Chistophe> is sometimes really unclear !

Unix is big and complicated.  At least it doesn't hide the names from
you like Windows 95 (almost deleted my system.ini file today...).
Someday somebody will make a complete dependency tree, but don't hold
your breath.

    Chistophe> Not really easy to manage when to
    Chistophe> upgrade GNU C and/or you upgrade the libs.

Not easy to manage, period.  But at least you can see everything....

    Chistophe> Thus I would like to know what is the "correct"
    Chistophe> directories structure ? I only know the one of Linux FT
    Chistophe> but is it a good one ?

The "correct" directory structure doesn't exist.  The reason for the
complex directory structures of Unix is that the file system plus
search paths does a lot of the work that *.ini files do under Windows,
namely, specifying which driver etc will be used, because it's first
found in the path.  This allows you to set up a system, then add your
own software into a "local" directory ahead of it on the path.  For
special purposes, you can change the search path.  If your local
version blows up, the previous configuration can be restored by
deleting it (if it's a single file) or reverting to a search path
without the local version directory on it.  Or if your version lacks
some function, you can use a fully qualified file name to get the
original.  For *real* complexity, get the docs for the kpathsea
library distributed with "web" versions of TeX.

For documentation on the directory structure in general, see the Linux 
File System Standard.  Gotta run home to the wife right now, but
searching for FSSTND in a linux FAQ directory should find it for you.
The FSSTND explains the difference between ...bin and ...sbin, for
example, and the difference between /bin and /usr/bin and
/usr/local/bin, too.  Also the difference between ...share and ...lib, 
and so on.  Most current distributions are FSSTND-compliant, at least
partially.

HTH

-- 
                            Stephen J. Turnbull
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences                    Yaseppochi-Gumi
University of Tsukuba                      http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/
Tel: +81 (298) 53-5091;  Fax: 55-3849              turnbull@example.com
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