[lsb-discuss] Alternative to creating system-wide symbolic link from /usr/

[Daniel Yek]

At 12:26 PM 1/18/2007, Nick Stoughton wrote:
>On Wed, 2007-01-17 at 23:22 -0800, Daniel Yek wrote:
> > This solution is less than ideal.
> >
<snip>
> > Installing a symbolic link from /opt/bin/hxplay (and realplay) back to
> > the
> > installation directory allows Nautilus and browsers to find the newly
> > installed Helix and RealPlayer in the same X session. Using the
> > /etc/profile.d/ approach would require that the user restart X.
> >
> > Is there a better solution? Or we should really stay out and require
> > reboot
> > after each installation?
> >
> > Should PATH be spec-ed to set to /usr/local/bin:/opt/bin:/usr/bin?
> >
> > Is there a similar solution for non root installation?
>
>Well, there's certainly no requirement for a reboot ... a log out and
>back in perhaps, but no more. But I do see your point.

Yes, the point is that it might be easier just to say that a reboot is 
required in such cases sometimes.

>There needs to be
>someway to signal to the current windows, or at least to all future
>ones, that they need to re-initialize somehow.

Is there such a mechanism (reinitialize environment variables on signals) 
in wide use? Assuming that is implemented, which components of the desktop 
require it? I think it is whichever application forking the new process, so 
I would think it is the GNOME desktop menu panel? And Nautilus, possibly 
browsers.


>The current requirements stem largely from trying to separate the
>namespaces; what if there was another app called hxplay? /usr/bin is
>part of the namespace reserved for the OS vendor.

Yes, we are here to try to do that.

>And you can't use /opt/bin ... the FHS says "The
>directories /opt/bin, /opt/doc, /opt/include, /opt/info, /opt/lib,
>and /opt/man are reserved for local system administrator use."

OK. Thanks for checking.


>According the the FHS and LSB, the only choices you have
>are /opt/<package> and /opt/<provider>, where <provider> is a LANANA
>registered name (and is the preferred place).

Oh yes, we have already finished the work. (Need to be checked in, still, 
though.) The next version of Helix and RealPlayer will be installed into 
/opt/helix/HelixPlayer and /opt/real/RealPlayer.

We are now trying to find a solution for the problem in the subject.

>See http://tinyurl.com/fpd9h
>(http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#OPTADDONAPPLICATIONSOFTWAREPACKAGES)
>for details.
>
>So, you might want to install in /opt/real/bin, /opt/real/lib
>and /opt/real/share.
>
>You are also talking about interactions that are not part of the LSB (or
>at least, they weren't last time I looked!) ... the spec says nothing
>about Nautilus or other browsers. So it can't talk about how to interact
>with them.

OK. That leaves me with some problems to resolve. When I have time, I'll 
look into it more. I know that our browser plug-in is looking for "its 
installation directory" in the path when it wakes up in the browser, not 
knowing where the rest of the components were installed to.

It is possible that there are solutions for each and every of these cases.

Thanks.


>--
>Nick Stoughton                          Cell: 510 388 1413
>USENIX Standards Liaison                Fax:  510 548 5738

-- 
Daniel Yek