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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!news.kei.com!news.texas.net!node2.frontiernet.net!usenet.logical.net!dciteleport.com!worldnet.att.net!arclight.uoregon.edu!pith.uoregon.edu!Symiserver2.symantec.com!news From: tedm@agora.rdrop.com Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Where to put packages *not* from FreeBSD ? Date: 28 Dec 1996 20:51:35 GMT Organization: Symantec Corp. Lines: 30 Message-ID: <5a418n$59d@Symiserver2.symantec.com> References: <stanbE2z02s.BIK@netcom.com> <59rvb3$1nm@klemm.gtn.com> <stanbE318MF.1GB@netcom.com> Reply-To: tedm@agora.rdrop.com NNTP-Posting-Host: shiva1.central.com X-Newsreader: IBM NewsReader/2 v1.2.5 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:33362 In <stanbE318MF.1GB@netcom.com>, stanb@netcom.com (Stan Brown) writes: > Well assume for the moment that I don't want to upgrade by recompileing > the whole world. I originally installed from a CD without doing this. > All I am trying to do at this time is plan for the future. IE when 2.2 > comes out I will want to grab a CD and upgrade. I would like to know > where is a safe place to put packages that are not part of what comes > on the Cd or from the ports system, so that they will not be > overwritten by the install from the CD. > > I am concerned since the traditional place "/usr/local" is heavily used > within the FreBSD distribution. I'm just trying to understand the > philosophy here. > I've gone through this from FreeBSD 1.1 to the current, and I have found that unlike operating systems like Winblows, it is almost always better with FreeBSD to reformat the hard drive upon installation of a new OS version. Thus, I like to keep all of the "foreign" packages under /usr/local, simply because it is easier to backup a single directory to tape, rather than having to dig all over to find the source for this or that that I compiled up. The other thing is that unlike desktop operating systems, it is not typical to upgrade server operating systems whenever a new release comes out, unless there is some tremendously pressing need. Take a hint from the Novell NetWare folks, did you know (for example) that Novell refuses to release installed base figures for 3.X, but does so for 4.x? This is because there are still an embarassingly large number of people who haven't made the move to 4.X