[tex-live] tl default installation dir

[Nelson H. F. Beebe]

Karl Berry <karl at freefriends.org> writes on Fri, 3 Jun 2005 20:15:55 -0600
(MDT):

>> ...
>> The default installation directory in the TeX Live Unix install scripts
>> has always been /usr/TeX.  I would like to propose to change that, to
>> /usr/local/texlive2005.
>> ...

While I strongly support the notion that user installations should go
under /usr/local (the GNU standard location), as I wrote a few days
ago, I think it would be a mistake to use Karl's suggested path, for
two reasons: 
        
    (1) There are going to be yearly releases, so
        /usr/local/texlive/2005, /usr/local/texlive/2006,
        /usr/local/texlive/2007, ... avoid cluttering the top-level
        directory, and conforms to the notion that each package rates
        just one top-level entry.

    (2) TeXlive is special in that its distribution is multiplatform,
        and thus, its tree can be used by several different
        architectures.  At our site, and according to common GNU
        conventions, that means that it belongs in the shared tree:
	/usr/local/share/texlive/2005, /usr/local/share/texlive/2006,
        ...

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