On Sun, 2011-12-04 at 21:16 -0600, BobTheBull wrote: > So then, why don't we call them what they are, sub directories or > folders, rather than prefixes. Prefix: something placed before and > which modifies the root. Don't see the descriptive here. > It sounds descriptive to me. It *IS* a prefix to the structure that corresponds to a set of Windows filing systems (C:, D:, etc.). > All that aside, presumably a prefix can be located anywhere, not just > in /home/username? One of the goals is to locate them outside home so > that if a clean install is needed, including reformatting home, all > your program installs and configurations in wine are not lost and have > to be redone from scratch. > With all due respect, you've got that backwards. The basic plot for painless upgrades is to put /home in a separate disk partition so you can easily reformat everything else. I've been arranging my Linux system this way for the last 10 years and haven't yet found a need to reformat the /home partition. A useful side effect is that you don't need to back anything outside this partition provided you're prepared to do a clean install after a disk crash. See http://www.libelle-systems.com/free/linux/easier_upgrades.html for a fuller explanation of my approach. > And how does wine know which prefix to use? Can particular programs be > associated with a given prefix? > Easily - I use wrapper script per program with the prefix set inside it. This means that, whether you run the script from the command line or associate a desktop icon with it, the correct prefix is used every time. There are other methods you can use, but this one works for me. Martin
