tlug: Version Control & Binary Locations

[joem <root@example.com>]

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tlug note from joem <root@example.com>
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I have a question about what people are doing with version control 
and binary locations.  

If I build Perl (for instance) I get 16 compiled binaries in 
my /usr/local/bin subdirectory.  What I've been doing is renaming 
the binaries to include the version numbers (ie perl --> perl5.003) 
and using symbolic links back to the executable name in the
same subdirectory.

The problem is that with multiple versions of packages and all 
the symbolic links, I end up with a whole lot of files in one
subdirectory, which becomes confusing.

One way around this would be to set the login environment to 
reference package subdirectories which have version numbers
attached, like /usr/local/perl5.003.   But this makes it a bit
difficult to change versions quickly.

Another way around this would be to move compiled binaries for
each package into it's own subdirectory in /usr/local/bin like
/usr/local/bin/perl5.003 and then have symbolic links in 
/usr/local/bin to the binaries in the subdirectory.  In this
case the only files in /usr/local/bin would be symbolic links.

There may be other ways to handle this as well.  Any suggestions
about which way is best?


-Joe.

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