Summary of Directory Tree Conventions

[Dorothy Carney]

The following is the original request for information:

In article <1990Jun25.162843.4039 at eagle.lerc.nasa.gov>:
>
>Our working group is getting started in the use and administration of UNIX
>workstations.  Our equipment includes a DECstation, a Sun SPARCstation, a
>Data General AViion, and even a Masscomp supermini.  There are many other
>computers at our site, including some with flavors of UNIX such as a Cray
>with Unicos and Amdahl with UTS.  To simplify the administration of our
>workstations and to facilitate networking, we are trying to standardize the
>directory trees on our workstations.
>
>What conventions have you applied in your UNIX environment?  IN particular:
>(1) Where do you put user accounts (userids).  (2) Where do you install
>third-party software.  (3) Do you create userids for software packages.
>(4) Where do you put local utilities.  Comments & suggestions please !!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
                       SUMMARY of REPLIES

Many informative replies were received by mail.  Here is a short summary.

(1) Where do you put user accounts (userids):
There were two groups of answers: /home with or without a sub-directory
extension (eg, /home/<filesystem> or /home/<server> ) and /usr in various
forms (eg, /usr1 and /usr2 ... /usera and /userb ... /u )

(2) Where do you install third-party software:
/usr/local was the predominant answer  ... with due respect to the demands
of the particular package.

(3) Do you create userids for software packages:
Only if absolutely necessary!! (This was an emotional issue for some!)

(4) Where do you put local utilities:
/usr/local/{bin,lib,src,etc ...} was a popular answer.  One site has an
elegant centrally administered /usr/global system for across a network.

Thanks to all who replied. :-)