I’ve seen a lot of self-hosted software wanting to store their data in /opt, is there any reason why?

  • caseyweederman
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 months ago

    Add-on application software packages

    How are applications that go into /opt different than any other packages? Even after reading that spec, it seems arbitrary.

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      32
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      Yes, it’s arbitrary.

      Packages that bundle a bunch of stuff, or otherwise make a mess, should go into /opt. Well-behaved packages that integrate with the system should be fine to install to /usr.

    • Strit@lemmy.linuxuserspace.show
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      3 months ago

      It is very arbitrary. Some/most non-free applications usually drop stuff into /opt, so it does not spread all over the filesystem. It makes sense if the application was not developed with Linux in mind, like Discord, Teamviewer etc.

    • orsetto@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      3 months ago

      I think it refers to applications that do not respect the standard directories like /usr/bin, /usr/share/man, /etc

    • Aniki 🌱🌿@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      3 months ago

      On all the work servers I maintain we pretty much install anything that’s not in the base repo to /opt/

    • 0x0@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      3 months ago

      If you didn’t get it through your distro’s package manager, it probably should go into /opt.