Re: exim's OS/Makefile-Linux

On Wed, 4 Sep 1996, Philip Blundell wrote:

> >On Tue, 13 Aug 1996, Ian Jackson wrote:
> >
> >> I think this should have the following settings:
> >> CONFIGURE_FILE=/etc/exim.conf
> >> BIN_DIRECTORY=/usr/local/sbin
> >
> >Those look like rather personal preferences to me, rather than something
> >"standard" for Linux, so I am not convinced they should be in the system
> >configuration file.
>
> I agree. There are many different Linux installations out there, and they are
> all different. Even system files like utmp have been found in at least three
> different places, so there's little hope that everybody will have picked the
> same place for their software.

Well there is a filesystem standard which all modern distributions more or
less stick to; the only difference I would expect to see would be whether
to use /usr or /usr/local; I would expect the former if it was part of a
distribution or the latter otherwise.

However I think Robert's point about the advantages of using a fixed
location on all operating systems is a good one, perhaps ideally there
should be the choice of a standard location or an OS specific one.

On the other hand, I can't imagine anyone would install anything as
important as a mailer without checking all the configuration files first,
so it's not terribly important to get it right.