Thanks, I didn't know about fetch/build in Macports. > except that a million build scripts and make files out there assume /usr/local/ as a default location. s

Thanks, I didn't know about fetch/build in Macports. > except that a million build scripts and make files out there assume /usr/local/ as a default location. setting up something like '/home/shared/' is not a problem, just don't mess with paths that are defaults Yet Macports puts everything in /opt/local and that doesn't cause any significant problems. I haven't run across a free software project in years that didn't have support for an install prefix. Anyway, I should have been more specific: on a Mac, making /usr/local user-writable and using it with a package manager is no different than creating a 2nd home directory for that purpose, from a security standpoint. I agree that putting things in /usr/local is the most logical place to put compiled software (mainly for consistency with one's own scripts that run on multiple platforms), and that's one of the reasons I use /usr/local with Homebrew instead of something in my home directory.