seeking general guidelines for installing software on Linux

[Eric Eisenhart]

On Mon, Jan 08, 2001 at 09:36:31PM -0800, Lorie Obal wrote:
> I was going to install the SUN j2sdk and I wasn't sure what directory to
> put it in.  What are the rules of thumb for placement of different types
> of software installs for Linux? Do some of the packages automatically
> install to the correct directory?

Well, this aspect of your question seems to be getting very thoroughly
addressed...  (And I'll stay out of it)

> I was also trying to upgrade my version of the RPM since the install
> wouldn't fly with my current version (I'm using what came with RH 6.0) I
> grabbed the upgrade from RH site, but it wouldn't install - it seems they
> were assuming something I don't know about which packgage goes where or
> order of installing them (?).

Usually when upgrading an RPM where you also need to upgrade other RPMs to
make it work, it's best to specify them all on the command line.  In other
words, instead of trying to figure out if "rpm -Uvh foo-1.3-i386.rpm; rpm
-Uvh bar-2.7-i386.rpm" or "rpm -Uvh bar-2.7-i386.rpm; rpm -Uvh
foo-1.3-i386.rpm" is what you need to do, just do "rpm -Uvh foo-1.3-i386.rpm
bar-2.7-i386.rpm", thereby allowing the RPM system to work out for itself
which one really needs to go first.

So, if when you try to install an RPM you get a complaint about requiring
something, get an RPM for that "something" and try again with both RPMs at
once.
-- 
    Eric Eisenhart   Freedom is slavery.      http://eric.eisenhart.com/
 ^  ICQ#: 48217244   Ignorance is strength.   eric-dot-sig at eisenhart.com
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