[arch-general] /etc/profile PATH variable wrong

[Heiko Baums]

Am Sun, 15 Aug 2010 11:21:24 +0200
schrieb Laurent Carlier <lordheavym at gmail.com>:

> Le dimanche 15 août 2010 11:20:33, Allan McRae a écrit :
> > On 15/08/10 18:50, Jude DaShiell wrote:
> > > In order for that to be correct it needs to also
> > > have :/usr/local/bin inside of the quote marks.
> > > The /usr/local/bin directory on Linux systems like slackware and
> > > debian is where stuff gets put that anyone can execute that's on
> > > the system. I put a simple shell script I wrote there then tried
> > > to use it and it wouldn't work until I keyed in
> > > the /usr/local/bin/myd command. That small script makes the date
> > > and time more readable for me. Since that file was copied from
> > > suse, people in that other distribution probably also ought to be
> > > notified.
> > 
> > What is wrong with not including that?  If the system administrator
> > can install files to /usr/local/bin then I am sure that they are
> > competent enough to add that to their path.
> > 
> > Allan
> 
> And as an user you can add the path in your .bashrc/....
> 
> ++

Of course they can, but Jude is not completely wrong with that,
because /usr/local and /usr/local/bin are part of the official Linux
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS). So it's an official path for local
scripts and binaries, which are e.g. written by the administrator. And
official paths, even if the package manager doesn't touch them, and
standards should be officially supported by Arch, too.

And why does it hurt adding this directory to the PATH?

From
http://tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem-Hierarchy/html/Linux-Filesystem-Hierarchy.html#usr:

"/usr/local

The original idea behind '/usr/local' was to have a separate ('local')
'/usr' directory on every machine besides '/usr', which might be just
mounted read-only from somewhere else. It copies the structure of
'/usr'. These days, '/usr/local' is widely regarded as a good place in
which to keep self-compiled or third-party programs. The /usr/local
hierarchy is for use by the system administrator when installing
software locally. It needs to be safe from being overwritten when the
system software is updated. It may be used for programs and data that
are shareable amongst a group of hosts, but not found in /usr. Locally
installed software must be placed within /usr/local rather than /usr
unless it is being installed to replace or upgrade software in /usr."

Heiko