[DRE-maint] Bug#448639: rubygems: please install gems in /usr/local/lib/gems/1.8

[Vincent Fourmond]

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Gunnar Wolf wrote:
> Shot (Piotr Szotkowski) dijo [Wed, Dec 19, 2007 at 02:44:39PM +0100]:
>>> /usr/local is the area where the local
>>> system administrator should unroll his mess.
>> Isn???t /opt for this? I never fully grasped the
>> official FHS difference between /usr/local and /opt???
> 
> Umh... /usr/local is more traditional ;-) 
> 
> /usr/local/bin is in your default $PATH, /usr/local/lib in your
> ldconfig... It just feels more natural. 

  Just for the record, I vote for /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/lib,
say, /usr/local/lib/gems/1.8 or .../lib/ruby/gems...

  This is where system administrators all expect manually installed
software to go. There's no reason to treat gems differently.

>>> In any case, /var is meant for variable data - things which are
>>> prone to change by themselves (such as all kinds of databases). 
>> IIRC, the original reason for moving non-packaged gems out of /usr/lib
>> was that /usr should be mountable read-only (e.g., over a network), and
>> some gems tend to write into their own install directory.
> 
> Umh... If a gem requires writing something in its install directory
> once it is installed, something is fundamentally wrong. BTW, remember
> that gems (which are, after all, just libraries) are meant to be used
> systemwide, be it by administrators or by regular system users!

  Agree - we won't be able to do anything about this anyway, and I don't
think anyone would want to use a library that modifies its own
installation...

  Cheers,

	Vincent

PS: I CC a bit everyone here, I'm not quite sure who's subscribed and
who's not.
- --
Vincent Fourmond, Debian Developer
http://vince-debian.blogspot.com/
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