software - multiple version installs (any distro developers here?)

[John]

Might take a look at homebrew on OSX ... it's similar to your idea , everything is installed into its own little packaged directory and then symlinked back to /usr/local/{bin,sbin}/....

It beats macports and fink all to fuck.

John

On August 16, 2016 1:20:39 AM EDT, Zenaan Harkness <zen at freedbms.net> wrote:
>Any distro developers here? I just want to float an idea with a couple
>folks before throwing it out publicly - I'm sure this has been thunked
>before, but I'd like to see the libre unix software ecosystem move
>forward on this.
>
>Firstly, witness the glory of /opt :
>
>$ tree /opt -L 3
>/opt
>├── bin
>│   ├── eclipse -> ../e/eclipse/eclipse
>│   ├── libreoffice -> ../l/libreoffice/program/soffice
>│   ├── lo -> libreoffice
>│   ├── pg -> ../p/pg/pg  # hypothetical
>│   ├── soffice -> libreoffice
>│   └── vuze -> ../v/vuze/latest/vuze/vuze
>├── e
>│   ├── eclipse -> eclipse-4.6
>│   ├── eclipse-4.6
>│   │   ├── artifacts.xml
>│   │   ├── configuration
>│   │   ├── eclipse
>│   │   ├── icon.xpm
>│   │   ├── plugins
>│   │   └── readme
>│   └── eclipse-themes
>├── l
>│   ├── libreoffice -> libreoffice5.2
>│   ├── libreoffice4.8
>│   │   ├── CREDITS.fodt
>│   │   ├── help
>│   │   └── program
>│   └── libreoffice5.2
>│       ├── CREDITS.fodt
>│       ├── help
>│       ├── LICENSE
>│       ├── LICENSE.html
>│       ├── presets
>│       ├── program
>│       └── share
>├── p
>│   └── pg -> postgresql
>└── v
>    └── vuze
>        ├── 5600
>        └── latest -> 5600
>
>
>So we see this particular /opt/bin is a (admittedly small in my
>personal
>example) symlink farm, pointing out to various versions of various
>installed software.
>
>Also, it is structured like a Debian style package pool, with
>directories {a..z} to contain the various (manually in this case)
>installed software.
>
>With just a smattering of /etc/.. based meta files, .deb meta files and
>tool awareness, a distro could install all software in this form - say
>into /usr/a/.. /usr/b/.. etc., and /usr/lib, /usr/bin and /usr/share
>become symlink farms.
>
>The primary benefits I see are:
> - simple multiple versions install of same software/ library/ etc
> - different software can easily depend on different versions of
>  other software/ library/ etc, since everything can easily be parallel
>   installed
> - existing Unixy standards can be more easily maintained (/bin /usr
>   /lib) with symlink farms
> - end user can much more easily maintain their own custom /opt/bin to
>   override version preferences rather than learning arcane per distro
>   package incantations
>
>Main problems:
> - it's a partially new install/ FHS system (though a multi-year
>   transition shouldn't be particularly painful afaict)
> - really needs to become part of FHS, and therefore cross-distro
> - therefore needs buy-in from >1 distro, or at least a non-intrusive
>   transition plan/ capability
>
>Does anyone foresee any other particular problems with this concept?

-- 
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
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