Losing the source
l’m relatively new to Linux (about one year) and it’s been co-existing with my Win2000 set-up. Being a keen new user I like to try software, when I can get it to work, and end up downloading lots of interesting things. I am getting confused as to where to put downloads ete, especially the .tar.gz and .rpm fileş. I see a lot in magazines about using “/usr/sre” or something in the 7usr” directory. Corning from a MicroSoft background, I tend to just put stuff in my home directory and install from there. I get the impression that this is maybe not the best thing to do. As ever with Linux, there seems to be no hard and fast rule regarding this. I just
wondered if you had any thoughts. I like to keep a tidy machine as far as possible and would vveleome any advice.
Dan Marks
rig| Where you put dovvnloads is not an issue
11 – İt’s vvhat you do vvith them aftervvards. «*** 1 Packages, such as RPMs, can be installed from anyvvhere, then you can either delete the RPM, or arehive it away for reference. You vvill probably just dovvnload everything into your home directory, then either install them straight from there, or put them somevvhere else vvith other RPMs, then install.
Tarballs can, again, be installed from anyvvhere. People sometimes use /usr/sre to store source code, but it really makes little difference at ali. As long as you perform the make install as root, assuming that you need root access in order to install the binaries, you can configure and build the source tree from anyvvhere you like. Very rarely does anyone keep source code hanging around, so you’re not going to end up vvith a directory containing everything you’ve built for the last six months.
