3. File system Locations

3.1. Introduction to the FHS

The file system layout standards used in Gentoo Linux closely follow the FHS, short for File system Hierarchy Standard. A simplified description of the standard is given here; for a complete specification go to http://www.pathname.com/fhs/.

Примечание

The /opt hierarchy is addressed in section 3.12 of the FHS. Section 4.4 deals with the /usr/X11R6 directory. KDE and GNOME are not specifically addressed, and are in fact not even mentioned in the current version of the FHS.

3.2. How to fit your packages into the file system

Usually, if the package uses autoconf and automake, the default installation destinations are mostly correct, with a few exceptions:

If you're installing a program into /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, or /usr/sbin, then the program's corresponding man page should be installed into the /usr/share/man tree. This can often be accomplished by specifying a ./configure --mandir=/usr/share/man in the ebuild.
GNU info files should always be installed to /usr/share/info, even if the info files are about X11, GNOME or KDE-specific programs or tools. Make a note: /usr/share/info is the only official location for GNU info files. Since many ./configure scripts default to installing GNU info files in /usr/info, it's often necessary to call ./configure with the --infodir=/usr/share/info argument.
Documentation files are installed in /usr/share/doc, into a subdirectory reflecting the name, version, and revision of the particular program. This applies to all programs: GNOME, KDE, X11 and console alike. However, some programs may install additional documentation and support files into a /usr/share hierarchy for their own purposes.
X11-specific programs and libraries should always be installed into /usr, not directly into /usr/X11R6. We reserve the /usr/X11R6 hierarchy for the X Window System, Version 11 Release 6 itself. This is perhaps a more to-the-letter interpretation of the FHS than some other distributions have made.
GNOME and KDE programs, similarly, should always be installed into /usr.

Важно

Some distributions choose to install GNOME and KDE into /opt. There exists no standard for these desktop environments in terms of where to actually install their files. In the interests of simplicity and consistency, we elect to install all KDE and GNOME packages into the /usr hierarchy.

In general, you should have ebuilds install their files into the /usr tree. Some programs can be compiled and linked with or without GNOME, KDE, and X11 libraries, which can cause confusion. Our solution is to install everything into /usr which avoids ambiguity and needless complexity for ebuild authors. The location in which to install a program's files should not depend on the presence or absence of specific USE variables. Therefore, the ebuilds in the portage tree almost always install into the /usr hierarchy exclusively.

Примечание

The /opt directory is reserved in Gentoo Linux for binary-only packages. Examples include mozilla-bin, acroread, netscape and realplayer. Packages that get installed here will usually require a /etc/env.d/foo stub file. This is so that paths and additional variables can be included into the environment. For more information on /etc/env.d, please visit this document.