On Sun, 2005-06-05 at 11:55 +0200, Tom Charles-Edwards wrote: > If software installs into my home directory instead is that a sign of > something horrible happening, or am I OK simply copying the application > across to /usr/local/bin and carrying on as normal? I take it putting my > home directory in the system path is not the way forward, on security > grounds. Hmm, which security grounds? I usually install software that I'm testing to somewhere in my home directory before I'm sure that I want to keep it. Copying is usually OK, but can break some software that relies on settings defined at build or install time to find data and resources. > I was also wondering about editing the system path. From what I can gather > from a cursory google the system path can be edited temporarily to affect a > specific shell, or system-wide. The files that I've seen mentioned in this > context are: > > /etc/login.defs > /home/tom/.bashrc > /home/tom/.bash_profile These files are sourced when you login or start a shell (at least .bashrc and .bash_profile are, I'm not sure about /etc/login.defs), so if you make a change in, for example, .bash_profile, you need to run '. ~/.bash_profile' or start a new shell to apply those changes. I usually put extra PATH directories in ~/.bash_profile (since I only use one user for doing stuff anyway). -- Lars Luthman PGP key: http://www.d.kth.se/~d00-llu/pgp_key.php Fingerprint: FCA7 C790 19B9 322D EB7A E1B3 4371 4650 04C7 7E2E -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 189 bytes Desc: This is a digitally signed message part Url : http://music.columbia.edu/pipermail/linux-audio-user/attachments/20050605/b7f638d1/attachment.bin
