Good path for package install?

[SpoogeMonkey]

Yet another linux newb question. Is there a typical or recommended dir to install packages too? So far I've just been making a new dir in the /usr dir. So far most things are working, except java runtime and Azureus, which is a java based app and can't find the path to java.

 

[Bullitt]

/usr/bin and /usr/sbin is where I normally place stuff I want all users to have access to. You can also install it wherever you want and make a symbolic link in /usr/bin /usr/sbin for that application.

For instance, my quake3ded binary is in /games/quake3 but I made a symlink in /usr/bin

/usr/bin is for multi-user runlevels and stuff in /usr/sbin is avaialble in singleuser run level (run level 1, normally used for troubleshooting). Quake server isnt good for troubleshooting without a network, so the symbolic link was dumped into /usr/bin.

 

[[H]EMI_426]

Coming from a FreeBSD background, I like /usr/ as a prefix for system-type stuff (/usr/bin, /usr/sbin, etc.). I like /usr/local (/usr/local/bin, /usr/local/sbin, etc.) as a prefix for non-system, "additional" applications. Of course, dealing with FreeBSD's ports system means I really don't have to think about this kind of stuff very much.

Whatever you pick, be consistent about it.

 

[HHunt]

If you want to keep it separate from everything else, /opt is the usual choice.