[olug] Installing software under /usr/local

[Dave Burchell]

I feel bad about promulgating the (admittedly trivial) flame war, so I'm
going to ask a legit question.

Let's say I have a fine Linux box and most of my software has come
to me as RPMs or .deb files.  But, I need to pick up the sources
for a more recent version of some software, and I want to install it
under "/usr/local".  Let's say I want the latest version of The GIMP.
Should I install it under a directory I create called "/usr/local/gimp"
or should I put The Gimp's libs under "/usr/local/lib", the executable
under "/usr/local/bin", and so on?

I've always leaned towards putting all the files under
their own directory, then adding those that I want to my path
(PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/gimp/bin).  That way I can keep the software
versions straight, but it can be inconvenient when adding new users to the
system and lead to a long path.

Comments?  Opinions?

-- 
Dave Burchell                                          40.49'N, 96.41'W
Free your mind and your software will follow.              402-467-1619
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/burchell/                  burchell at acm.org