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Re: [Groff] Macro path and /usr/local


From: P. Alejandro Lopez-Valencia
Subject: Re: [Groff] Macro path and /usr/local
Date: Mon, 06 May 2002 06:11:53 -0500

At 02:44 a.m. 06/05/2002 +0100, Colin Watson wrote:
On Sun, May 05, 2002 at 08:33:08PM -0500, P. Alejandro Lopez-Valencia wrote:
> At 01:52 a.m. 06/05/2002 +0100, Colin Watson wrote:

Um, does DWB use */groff? If not, it won't clash.

No it doesn't. It dumps things around /usr/share/tmac /usr/share/troff/dev (if I recall correctly) and in a full installation it will have its own hierarchy under /usr (I seem to recall /usr/text, it's been years since I've got access to a full DWB install).

Anyway, in the case of Debian I'm not too worried about /usr/share
clashes with vendor Unixes. I'm prepared to bet that it wouldn't work
anyway for a host of other reasons.

[snip]

Well, these are the definitions in the FHS:

       4.4  /usr/lib : Libraries for programming and packages

       /usr/lib includes object files, libraries, and internal binaries that
       are not intended to be executed directly by users or shell scripts.

[snip]

I think the FHS is already giving you the answer as to why there is an /usr/lib/groff directory. The files that are installed there are internal files not intended to be executed directly by users. E.g., the contents of /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac/ in a system with a native n/troff would contain:

.cp
.so /usr/share/tmac/tmac.ms

[See tmac/Makefile.sub). You are not supposed to call this macro directly but rather use groff's -C flag.

Choosing between /usr/local, /etc, and /var depends on whether you
believe macros are architecture-independent data, configuration files,
or variable data (!).

That's highly relative. In SysVR4 and many derivatives the printing subsystem configuration files and filter binaries are in /usr/var/lp although they are symbolically linked to /etc/lp. Why do you think many call UNIX perverse? :)

Of course, as packager you are called to do what your conscience dictates. Yet, I perceive too many examples of Sinatrism ("doing it my way") in the Linux distros already; giving just one example, have you ever tried to disentangle the mess most Linuces do with vim's global configuration files?


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