[NTLUG:Discuss] Sysadmin type question: Where should programs go?

[Chris Cox]

John K. Taber wrote:
> I settled on Thunderbird for a newsreader. It is installed in a login
> user's id. No real problem because I'm the only user. 
> 
> But suppose I had several users and installed Thunderbird so that each
> could use it. 
> 
> Where should the system administrator put the package? In /usr/local? 
> 
> In other words, I got the impression that some directories are there for
> a purpose. I'm too new to Linux to understand what the purposes are, so
> if you were installing Thunderbird on one computer for the use of
> several users, where would you put it?

/usr/local is fine and very traditional.  I usually make /usr/local
a separately mounted area or at least linked to a separately mounted
area (so you can preserve it on full reinstalls and such).

There is a Linux filesystem hierarchy "standard" that you can find.
It tries its best to describe what the various areas are for.  The wording
has greatly weakened over time mainly to support the "largest" distribution.

See: http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html