[TriLUG] question about FHS

[Greg Cox]

> Although, I'm a little confused by this entry in /usr/local:
> 
>     It may be used for programs and data that are shareable amongst
>     a group of hosts, but not found in /usr.
> 
> AFAIK, it used to be that /usr/local was for apps _local_ and hence for
> that particular machine.  It wasn't meant to be shared.  Having a
> "remote local" doesn't make much sense. :)

I would take it to mean that, given a cluster of similarly-tasked servers
(e.g. rack of graphics-rendering-mojo machines), /usr/local may be
shared (NFS) for maintenance ease.  That is, /usr/local may be defined as
site-local, not just machine-local.

> If you're going to have a bunch of machines sharing the same resources, 
> then you might as well make a proper package and stick it in /usr.

Depends.  The program in /usr/local may need RW access, and /usr may
be locked down to RO.  The site may not have someone knowledgable in
cfengine/apt/rpm/rsync to get a good /usr deployment going.  I dunno.