4 ms·
Fair enough, but there are two separate questions here: 1. Where do you want the software? 2. Are elevated privileges required to put the software wher
by telemachos 17y ago
Fair enough, but there are two separate questions here:
1. Where do you want the software?
2. Are elevated privileges required to put the software where you want?
If you want to load all your software into $HOME/bin, then more power to you and no sudo is required. However, /usr/local serves an important and valid purpose (to provide packages system-wide), and it should not be available without elevated privileges. (By the way, 'not mixed in with system software' is misleading, since OSX ships with an empty /usr/local. Nothing you put in /usr/local mixes with anything.)
Homebrew's official README suggests changing the ownership of /usr/local, and I think that's a terrible idea for multi-user machines. (Having said that, I suppose that many people have single-user machines, and in that case the issue is largely moot.)
Finally, a simple way to put software into your $HOME without ever needing sudo is available in most cases:
./configure --prefix=$HOME
- blasdel 17y agoAnd those two separate questions are both ones that no other package manager even bothers to ask! /usr/local does start off empty on OS X, but it's where every random .pkg you download likes to put stuff. You'll get mixing unless every non-app you install comes from a package manager. On FreeBSD every package that didn't ship in the default install goes there. There's a reason that MacPorts uses /opt/local by default.