OK to create /usr/local/bin?

Hi,
I tried today to install the command line utility for Growl, growlnotify. The installer script failed because it tried to install into /usr/local/bin which isn't there currently.
Now, is it OK to just go ahead and run "mkdir /usr/local/bin" to create the directory? I am not very experienced with Unix so I usually don't touch the unix directories so that I don't mess up anything...
Thanks!
Ingo

If you are the only or primary user of your computer, and you want to mess around, /usr/local is as good a place as any, since most software installs in it by default. Another option is to do stuff in your home directory.
If you have a dumb installer or Makefile that tries to install and possibly over-write files in say /usr/bin, you would be tipped off by install permission failure, whereas if you issued "sudo make install" you are at the mercy of whomever wrote the Makefile.
I actually build stuff in my home directory and install it into root-owned /usr/local, and the first time I issue "make -i install" I do it without write permissions and I can watch where it tries to put stuff. That is excessively paranoid. But its when you stop being paranoid.
Anyway, it doesn't much matter. For security reasons on a multiuser system, it is best to have multi-user accessed executables in root-owned directories.

Similar Messages

How to put g95 in usr/local/bin?

Hi all,
I am trying to compile a program called elmerice. When I type the "make compile" command, I get the following message:
elmerf90-nosh -c Solvers/AIFlowSolve_nlD2.f90 -o Solvers/AIFlowSolve_nlD2.o
/usr/local/bin/g95 -O5 -ffast-math -ftree-vectorize -march=nocona -fprefetch-loop-arrays -fomit-frame-pointer -fstrict-aliasing -momit-leaf-frame-pointer -falign-loops -I. -Ibinio -I/Applications/ElmerGUI.app/Contents//share/elmersolver/include -c Solvers/AIFlowSolve_nlD2.f90 -o Solvers/AIFlowSolve_nlD2.o
/Applications/ElmerGUI.app/Contents/bin/elmerf90-nosh: line 18: /usr/local/bin/g95: No such file or directory
I did install (I think successfully) g95 using macports, i.e. the command "sudo port install g95" but apparently it is not in /usr/local/bin, which seems to be where elmerice wants to find it.
One complicating factor might be that /usr/local/bin does have gfortran it.
It seems like elmerice will only use g95. Can I put g95 in the /usr/local/bin directory from wherever I have it now, and if so, how? Or can I just reinstall g95 in that directory?
Thanks,

Try creating a symbolic link from /usr/local/bin/g95 to wherever MacPorts put it. That is probably the easiest solution. Ideally, you would fix the makefile, but that wouldn't be easy.

What about /usr/local/bin + sbin merge?

With the merge of /bin and /lib folders that just happened I was curious if there was a particular reason to keep both /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/sbin as actual folders in the filesystem, instead of making /usr/local/sbin a symlink to /usr/local/bin.

arojas wrote:If you delete it, it will be recreated with every update of the filesystem package anyway
This.
Jindur wrote:So I guess that folder is actually not under my complete control
The contents is*, pacman (actually, the filesystem package) just creates it for you since 99.9% of people either need it or don't care.
If it bothers you that much, you can use ABS to build your own "filesystem" package without any /usr/local/ paths
* Should be according to the Arch Packaging Standards unless someone writes a bad PKGBUILD which incidentally I found one of mine doing that yesterday... Accidents happen!
Last edited by fukawi2 (2013-06-04 23:07:23)

Accidentally deleted /usr/local/bin

I was setting up some folders after compiling a package, and I accidentally did a 'rmdir /usr/local/bin', and then 'sudo !!', and I entered my password. rmdir returned 0 on exit so I assume it successfully deleted the folder. My question is, was there anything important on that folder? (I'm using a fresh installation I did two days ago, no AUR packages installed, only installed packages from the official repositories). If not, I guess I'll create an empty new one and continue like nothing happened.

drcouzelis wrote:
It's empty by default.
fred22 wrote:If not, I guess I'll create an empty new one and continue like nothing happened.
If you do that it'll be just like new.
Thanks for answering, I guess I'll do that. Also, I checked rmdir's manpage and realized it only deletes empty directories. :-)

Not able to see make in /usr/local/bin even after installing the package

Hi,
I have installed the package make-3.8 for solaris 9 on my machine with sun os 5.9. But still I can not see 'make' in /usr/local/bin .
Does anyone have an idea why?
I installed the same as root using the command:
pkdadd -d <packagename>
But it gives me quite many warnings like :
WARNING : /usr/local/bin/make <not present on Read only file system>
WARNING : /usr/local/bin/doc/make/ABOUT-NLS <not present on Read only file system>
At the end it says Installation of SMCmake was successful
Still I can't see make in /usr/local/bin.
Regards
Manmeet

Seems like /usr/local is mounted read-only? Run
mount | grep local
or
touch /usr/local/test
and see if you can write files in the directory.
/M.

/usr/local/bin/pdf2ps: gs: not found

GS 8.54
Solaris 10
Oracle 11.5.10.2
I'm having problem regarding the pdf2ps which it seem cannot find the pdf2ps. When i try to print the pdf file in apps using pasta.
The printer confirm support pasta and post script.
The report submited is complete with warning. This is the error inside the log file.
/usr/local/bin/pdf2ps: gs: not found
Pasta: Error: Preprocess failed. Command=/usr/local/bin/pdf2ps /v99/app/applmgr/abghfuat/applcsf/out/ABGHFUAT_e2sscorhrmdba02/ABG_APXPBFOR_XML_BMO_2495102_1.PDF /v30/app/applmgr/abghfuat/comn/temp/pasta18270_0.tmp
Pasta: Error: Preprocess or Print command failed!!!
APP-FND-00500: AFPPRN received a return code of failure from routine FDUPRN. An error occurred while AOL tried to spawn the print process
Cause: AFPPRN received a return code of failure from the OSD routine FDUPRN. An error occurred while AOL tried to spawn the print process.
.pdf file being generated, but failing when calling Pasta.

Hi,
Since you indicate a version number for ghostscript in your post (8.54), I'm guessing the issue is that gs is not in the path for the applmgr user. On my system (Linux, not Solaris, so there may be differences), gs and pdf2ps are in different directories.
Try running the following command as the applmgr user:
which gsIf you don't get the path to gs as output from that command, you will need to add the path to gs to the path environment variable of the applmgr user.
Regards,
John P.

/usr/local/bin vs /usr/bin and Kazehakase vs Firefox

When you install an application to /usr/bin will it be more faster than installed on /usr/local/bin?
I have Firefox installed in /usr/bin and Kazehakase installed to /usr/local/bin. And it seems that Firefox is faster than Kazehakase. Why?
Last edited by Paingiver (2008-03-15 11:11:48)

dyscoria wrote:
Endperform wrote:The notion that an application can be sped up by linking it in your home directory, or even renaming it to one letter is also crazy. Your install will search for an executable in the path specified in $PATH and then execute the first instance it finds, but this does NOT speed the application itself up.
No seriously, if you rename all your executables to one letter then your system runs like lightning!
* am i really that bad at sarcasm? *
Yes, since there was no indication of sarcasm in your post. A or would have worked

/usr/local/bin

Hello everyone,
Whenever i am installing any s/w from source by compiling,its executable is getting stored in /usr/local/bin.Now im unable to use the s/w by just typing its executable name in the terminal,its giving me an error as "command not found".what i have to do is browse to the directory /usr/local/bin n then run the executable as ./xxxxx.How can i add the directory /usr/local/bin so that it too is checked for executables.
Thanks in advance,
Rajiv Nair.

Anyway, /usr/local is made just for those things you do not want to be touched by your package manager. So, if for any reason you do not want to write a PKGBUILD for something (if e.g., it is just a little script you wrote and you want to install it system-wide; or you have some reasons to make the compilation routine step by step), then /usr/local is then just the right place: /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/sbin for executable with various permissions, /usr/local/lib for the libraries, may be /usr/local/src for the sources, etc. Then you should just modify your /etc/profile (or your .bashrc, .zshrc).
This is not what is supported by arch, but it is something you can always do, if you like so, in any linux system of the world.

Usr/local/bin...or where?

hey guys,
I just made a package of sylpheed claws 2.00. Everything went ok, but the binary was placed in /usr/local/bin. For reasons I don't quite understand, this is not an arch-like place to be. So where should I put it, and how should I modify my pkgbuild to put it there?
btw, here's the fairly plain pkgbuild;
pkgname=sylpheed-claws
pkgver=2.0.0
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="The stable extended version of sylpheed"
url="http://claws.sylpheed.org/"
licence=""
depends=(pkgconfig libetpan)
makedepends=()
conflicts=()
replaces=()
backup=()
install=
source=(http://internap.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/sylpheed-claws/$pkgname-$pkgver.tar.gz)
md5sums=('7ddfc626484ae0954a78c5233931e21a')
build() {
cd $startdir/src/$pkgname-$pkgver
./configure --with-gtk2
make || return 1
make DESTDIR=$startdir/pkg install
also, what forum should I have posted this to?
thanks!

Well ... it CAN be set to anywhere you like, but compliance with the Arch Packaging Standards would be preferable - or mandatory, if you want to submit your PKGBUILD to the AUR. A quick read of the AUR User Guidelines would also be useful in that case.
General hints -
./configure --help
will give you all the options for most apps. The ABS wiki pages provide the Arch-specific stuff.

How do I change permisson to write on /usr/local/bin??

Hi
I'm installing a software by source (PKG-CONFIG) as needed by bluefish, however which I was doing " Make install" the terminal told me that it can't write on /usr/local/bin/pkg-config......so how do I change the permission so that I can start installing??
Thanks
Chris

Precede the install command with "sudo" and use your password (provided you are an admin). Then the insatller will have permission to write as if you are the "root" user.
eg:
$ sudo install
will run "install" as if run by root - who does have permission to write to the dir.
MacBook (BootCamp), various Macs and servers Mac OS X (10.4.7)

How to change /usr/bin/grep To /usr/local/bin/grep

Hi
I have installed GNU Grep but when I am giving the command #which grep it is showing me solaris grep i.e /usr/bin/grep.
My question is how do I change it to /usr/local/bin/
Thanks in advance
Sukrut

You have a few options:
1) place /usr/local/bin before /usr/bin in your PATH environment variable
2) remove /usr/bin/grep altogether
3) move /usr/bin/grep to something else (ie: /usr/bin/solaris/grep) and symlink /usr/bin/grep to /usr/local/bin/grep just in case any hard coded programs/scripts rely on /usr/bin/grep being present.
I prefer step #3 since most of the various gnu utilities are virtually 100% drop-in replacements.

How do I add /usr/local/bin to path

Hi.
I have installed arch linux on a server.
It seems really very good - manged to install latest snort-inline easily...
However (and this is really a completely NOOB question)
- how do I add /usr/local/bin to the default (root) path ?
I have tried to add
PATH=/usr/local/bin
to /etc/enviornment
But it did not show up when using the - env command (after re-logging in)
I know that I could sym link to /usr/bin but i would like to know.
Any help would be good
Cheers
Last edited by yossarianuk (2008-10-02 10:31:21)

There's a place for all three of /usr/bin, /usr/local/bin, and ~/bin --- even on Arch.
If you download package whizbang-1.2.3 from some non-Arch site, its installer will often by default try to install its files into the /usr/local hierarchy. When making a PKGBUILD, you want to tell it instead to install into $pkgdir/usr, so that when you install the resulting pkg file with pacman, it goes into the /usr hierarchy. That's what the wiki page is saying: pacman-managed stuff goes into the /usr hierarchy.
/usr/local/* is for files you want to install systemwide without making a PKGBUILD. Your own scripts are a great example. Also you might want to install some compiled files that way, if making a PKGBUILD isn't worth it or you don't have the time to write (*and maintain!*) one.
~/bin is for scripts (could be compiled files too) that you want to only be available to that specific user.

[RESOLVED] Can't detect symlink in /usr/local/bin

The directory is in the path:
echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/bin/core_perl
So I don't understand why I'm not able to run a symlink in /usr/local/bin.
Any ideas as to why?
Last edited by Goran (2012-10-17 23:24:12)

drcouzelis wrote:There's a good chance whatever it links to doesn't exist (bad link), isn't executable, or isn't accessable by your user.
Even dumber: "ln -s /usr/bin/myprogram\ -someoption linkname". I didn't realize that this is actually a link to a program named "myprogram -someoption".
... boy do I feel stupid.
Thanks for your help.

Simple script in /usr/local/bin just won't start - SOLVED

I put this really simple script for starting psi into my /usr/local/bin, set it a+xr and added /usr/local/bin to my path. However, I just can't start the damn thing.
Here's the script itself (I really don't think there's something wrong with it, since if I type it in the shell it works fine):
#!/bin/zsh/
#start psi, never stop
while true;
do psi;
done
Here's my users $PATH:
─$ print $PATH
/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/opt/bin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/kde/bin:/opt/mozilla/bin:/opt/qt/bin
Here's the permissions of the script:
$ ls -lah /usr/local/bin
total 4.0K
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 80 Dec 15 03:52 ./
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 240 Dec 10 18:55 ../
-rwxrwxr-x 1 kamagurka users 60 Dec 15 03:51 psi.start*
And here's what happens when I try to execute it:
$ psi.start
zsh: command not found: psi.start
So, I'm either missing something incredibly obvious, or something freaky's going on here. I hope it's the former.
EDIT: I had no idea where to put this, so I put it into Desktop Env since I'm trying to start a graphical app, but feel free to move it.
EDIT: Yea, I was being a little dense.

smoon wrote:Not sure if that's the problem, but try removing the trailing / (slash) from your script's shebang.
See, something really obvious. Stupid, even. You can see, I don't do a lot of scripting.

Script to start an app in /usr/local/bin

I am new to trying AppleScript. I use gnupg and want to start an app called "gpg-agent" located in /usr/local/bin/ . I want to pass it an arg, something like --daemon and maybe another ... first I want to see if it is even running ...
But when I compile, AppleScript prompts me to locate gpg-agent. That browse function only lists certain folders and never hidden nor /usr/ ....
Any help please?

Oy!
well, golly ...no, just wanna scribble something to make my gpg work for encryption. Need to get something started outside the program. Scfripting sounded nice since I didn't really want to do C++
where's a good forum.
thanks for the patience

OK to create /usr/local/bin?

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