this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Why do programs install somewhere instead of asking me where to?
EDIT: Thank you all, well explained.
I wish every single app installed in the same directory. Would make life so much easier.
They do!
/binhas the executables, and/usr/sharehas everything else.Apps and executables are similar but separate things. An app is concept used in GUI desktop environments. They are a user-friendly front end to one or more executable in
/usr/binthat is presented by the desktop environment (or app launcher) as a single thing. On Linux these apps are usually defined in a.desktopfile. The apps installed by the Linux distribution's package manager are typically in/usr/share/applications, and each one points to one of the executables in/usr/binor/usr/libexec. You could even have two different "apps" launch a single executable, but each one using different CLI arguments to give the appearance of different apps.The desktop environment you use might be reconfigured to display apps from multiple sources. You might also install apps from FlatHub, Lutris, Nix, Guix, or any of several other package managers. This is analogous to how in the CLI you need to set the "
PATH" environment variable. If everything is configured properly (and that is not always the case), your desktop environment will show apps from all of these sources collected in the app launcher. Sometimes you have the same app installed by multiple sources, and you might wonder "why does Gnome shell show me OpenTTD twice?"For end users who install apps from multiple other sources besides the default app store, there is no easy solution, no one agreed-upon algorithm to keep things easy. Windows, Mac OS, and Android all have the same problem. But I have always felt that Linux (especially Guix OS) has the best solution, which is automated package management.
Not all. I've had apps install in opt, flatpaks install in var out of all places. Some apps install in /etc/share/applications
In
/etc? Are you sure?/usr/share/applicationshas your system-wide.desktopfiles, (while.local/share/applicationshas user-level ones, kinda analogous to installing a program toAppDataon Windows). And.desktopfiles could be interpreted at a high level as an "app", even though they're really just a simple description of how to advertise and launch an application from a GUI of some kind.OK, that was wrong. I meant usr/share/applications. Still, more than one place.
The actual executables shouldn't ever go in that folder though.
Typically packages installed through a package manager stick everything in their own folder in
/usr/lib(for libs) and/usr/share(for any other data). Then they either put their executables directly in/usr/binor symlink over to them.That last part is usually what results in things not living in a consistent place. A package might have something that qualifies as both an executable and a lib, so they store it in their lib folder, but symlink to it from bin. Or they might not have a lib folder, and just put everything in their share folder and symlink to it from bin.
There is also /sbin or /usr/sbin, for executables only available to the superuser.