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Occasionally I install applications manually, rather than using apt or another package manager.

What location (/usr/, /usr/local/, /opt/, /home/, etc.) is suggested by "best practices" for the installation of user applications?

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Liking to install things from source every so often, I wrote a little tool to do it which does the changes to your shell startup file on its own (and also modify your library prefix, if you ask it, for programs that depend on shared libraries). Not very feature rich, but it works 99% of the time. – new123456 Apr 28 '13 at 0:57
    
Related post: askubuntu.com/q/138547/62483 – Lucio Aug 23 '15 at 3:23
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Great discussion on the distinction between /opt and /usr/local : unix.stackexchange.com/q/11544/11917 – blong Oct 26 '15 at 20:13
up vote 147 down vote accepted

That depends, really. If the application has a makefile, (for python apps) uses distutils (has a setup.py file) or a similar build/install system, put it into /usr/local/ (default behavior).

If you just need to extract a tarball and run directly (e.g. Thunderbird, Firefox) then put it into /opt/.

Why? From what I understand, /usr/local/ has a hierarchy that is similar to /usr/. So a program expecting to get "installed" into /usr/ should work fine in /usr/local/. A program that just needs one directory and will get all files/libraries relative to that directory can get one directory for itself in /opt/.

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It seems so many people forget about opt/ - in my opinion you've hit the nail on the head as for it's purpose. – Marco Ceppi♦ Aug 5 '10 at 15:23
    
I downloaded eclipse & extracted to /opt. How can I make it run from terminal as like other programs like javac,java. I did with update-alternatives as follows, sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/eclipse" "eclipse" "/opt/eclipse/eclipse" 1 BUT IT SAYS COMMAND NOT FOUND I TYPE sudo eclipse – Deepen Apr 28 '14 at 7:16
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Make a symlink from /usr/bin or add it to PATH in ~/.bashrc – Alex Jun 25 '14 at 2:24
up vote 23 down vote

The Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard indicates /usr/local.

From http://tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem-Hierarchy/html/usr.html:

The original idea behind '/usr/local' was to have a separate ('local') '/usr' directory on every machine besides '/usr', which might be just mounted read-only from somewhere else. It copies the structure of '/usr'. These days, '/usr/local' is widely regarded as a good place in which to keep self-compiled or third-party programs. The /usr/local hierarchy is for use by the system administrator when installing software locally. It needs to be safe from being overwritten when the system software is updated. It may be used for programs and data that are shareable amongst a group of hosts, but not found in /usr. Locally installed software must be placed within /usr/local rather than /usr unless it is being installed to replace or upgrade software in /usr.

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Seems to contradict this /usr/local stuff with the info on the opt page: tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem-Hierarchy/html/opt.html " "This directory is reserved for all the software and add-on packages that are not part of the default installation. For example, StarOffice, Kylix, Netscape Communicator and WordPerfect packages are normally found here. To comply with the FSSTND, all third party applications should be installed in this directory." ... " (similar to the way in which Windows will install new software to its own directory tree C:\Windows\Progam Files\"Program Name")" – Pod Aug 4 '16 at 11:15
up vote 86 down vote

It's good to remember that /usr does not stand for user but rather unix system resources.

As such, I tend to figure that any distribution has the rights to stomp all over over contents of /usr, and that my specific additions to the system go in /usr/local, which I preserve before doing an upgrade.

Meanwhile, applications and other things go in /opt.

Some people feel comfortable putting stuff in /home, though I rarely follow that convention.

All that said, I let the distribution package manager do things its way first, and then do the above when hand rolling stuff.

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It's worth remembering that 'unix system resources' is a renaming performed AFTER '/home' was added. In the old, old, old days (Unix Version 6 et.al.) you would see directories like /usr/jimmy, /usr/siobhan, /usr/ahmed, etc. because the "user" directories were stored in /usr. – Mark Leighton Fisher Nov 20 '12 at 18:52
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+1 for usr = "unix system resources" – ruuter Oct 18 '14 at 17:50
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OK I'll bite: what does opt stand for? – Seth May 12 '15 at 2:17
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@Seth I think it's 'optional' - it was originally for software that wasn't part of a default installation. – Carl H Jun 13 '15 at 14:53
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/usr is User. That was because linux users were developers. First as it started to devide into devs and users the /home dir was introduced. And then someone had the idea to say it means Unix System Resources, which doesn't really makes sense, because we have the Unix system Resources in /dev – Info-Screen Dec 17 '16 at 14:47
up vote 1 down vote

Use "checkinstall" to convert your alien package to a deb so that it is uninstallable using the package manager.

Do note that config files will often not be handled as config files (perhaps ignored, or perhaps treated as part of the app), and that pre- and post-install scripts sometimes get bungled, though it will usually warn you when it thinks the deb will have a bad pre- or post-install script.

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up vote 30 down vote

Install unstable programs like firefox devel in /home/user/opt/ makes it a lot easier to remove, and no confusion for other users as to what version they should use... So if it is not a program for global use, install it in a subfolder in your home directory.

Never install programs in /usr/, it is likely to cause chaos, things installed in /usr/ is meant to be for distribution packages only. /usr/local/ is for packages locally compiled. And the srtucture works in exactly the same way! files in /usr/local/ will be prioritized over files in /usr/

/opt/ should be used for installation of pre-compiled (binary) packages (Thunderbird, Eclipse, Netbeans, IBM NetSphere, etc) and the like. But if they are only for a single user they should be put in your home directory.

If you want to be able to run a program installed in a "weird" location (like /home/user/opt/firefox/) without typing the whole path you need to add it to your $PATH variable, you can do this be adding a line like this in your /home/user/.profile

export PATH=/home/user/opt/firefox:$PATH

The folder name should be the one where the executable file you need to run is located.

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up vote 5 down vote

I usually have a folder named "Programs" in my home where I install those programs, strange enough (or not) they are all java stuff right now.

It has one great advantage for me, when I reinstall or change computers they get moved with the rest of my home. It has a clear disadvantage, those apps are only available to my user.

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How can i reinstall Ubuntu 16.04 without losing data in home folder ? I tried to do by formate / directory only then type the same old username and password but i found that Ubuntu creates another home folder. – Ibrahim Disouki Dec 30 '17 at 14:56

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