/usr/local/bin in $PATH in system scripts?

[Fergal Daly]

On 16/04/07, Derek Broughton <news at pointerstop.ca> wrote:
> Fergal Daly wrote:
>
> > On 15/04/07, Derek Broughton <news at pointerstop.ca> wrote:
> >> Fergal Daly wrote:
> >>
> >> > I'm looking for clarification of policy in the context of this bug
> >> >
> >> > https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-system-tools/+bug/71336
> >> >
> >> > and the fact that having your own version of Perl in /usr/local will
> >> > almost certainly break your Ubuntu admin tools.
> >>
> >> Well, perl should normally be in /usr/bin, so as long as /usr/local/bin
> >> is after /usr/bin, there shouldn't be a problem.
> >
> > Well, I agree that if it must be there it should be after /usr/bin
> > however if you've installed all dependencies then everything should be
> > found in /usr/bin so the /usr/local/bin would be redundant.
>
> No, because none of the Ubuntu packages should rely on anything
> in /usr/local - that's for _your_ use.  I don't put much in /usr/local, but
> it's certainly not redundant (right now, for sure, I have maven - which
> isn't in Ubuntu).

I'm not saying /usr/local/ is redundant I'm saying putting in $PATH in
a system script redundant because everything should be found in
/usr/bin (or /bin or whatever).

> >
> > Either way,
> >
> > find /etc/ -type f|xargs grep "PATH=.*/usr/local/bin.*/usr/bin"
> >
> > turns up 21 files in /etc that put /usr/local/bin before /usr/bin.
>
> And if they have their own paths, they should work - presumably they know
> what they're doing.

Except some of them don't work, that's why I'm raising this issue.

> >> Well, that's Debian policy, not ubuntu's, but I would think even Debian
> >> policy collapses there if files in /usr/local are in the path and come
> >> before policy-required files.
> >
> > I don't really know what you mean by the "policy collapses". Do you
> > agree that the system tools should continue to work no matter what I
> > put in /usr/local?
>
> Yes, they should.

Good. The only way to ensure that is to not put /usr/local/bin before
all the usual system bin directories in $PATH.

> > If so, what should I do to convince the maintainer
> > of gnome-system-tools (and possibly many others) to change the PATH=
> > line in their script (note, I cannot post to ubuntu-devel as only
> > official developers can post there). Thanks,
>
> File a bug in launchpad.

I did (the link is in quoted text above), the developer disagrees with
me (and you it seems). I came here looking for backup to my argument.
I'll try devel-discuss,

F

> --
> derek
>
>
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