[oi-dev] Desktop Illumos Still Matters

[Andrew Gabriel]

Nick Zivkovic wrote:
> Agreed. Also, I see that /opt and /usr/$consolidation overlap in terms
> of their purpose.
>
> For example we have /usr/X11. According to `man filesystem` /opt is
> meant to hold add-on/third-party software.
>   

/opt was meant for unbundled software. Ideally, it should be empty 
immediately following a full install of a distro, as everything is by 
definition bundled. I don't think Solaris ever quite got that right, but 
it was almost there. Everything you install after that (which isn't part 
of the distro) should be in /opt (and /etc/opt and /var/opt), but a lot 
of 3rd-party software developers got that wrong too.

> If that's the case shouldn't X11 be in /opt/X11? Or should the
> convention be updated, so that we store the bundles or consolidation
> in /usr as is already being done?
>
> If sub-directories of /usr are separate datasets (like /usr/X11 is
> rpool/X11), that should make migration easier.
>
> Basically, I'm asking if it is better to have one convention
> (everything in /usr/$consolidation) instead of two (some things in
> /usr/$consolidation and others in /opt/$consolidation)?
>   

There's never been any rule about consolidations being funneled into 
specific directories. It may be that it makes sense in a few specific 
cases because of functional groupings, but not universally.

-- 
Andrew