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The whole point of Homebrew is: 1) To install things in userland 2) To make maintenance easier. Is there a Linux package manager that puts everything in user

The whole point of Homebrew is: 1) To install things in userland 2) To make maintenance easier. Is there a Linux package manager that puts everything in userland in a place like /usr/local? If not, then it installs things into the operating system, essentially. And that is bad design, pure and simple. You're basically mutating your OS, with nondeterministic results- such as I often run into when I hit "update everything" and my Linux distro then refuses to boot.

stephenr 12y ago
The whole point of Homebrew is to be a package manager for OS X, and it's only popular because its the best of several shit options. That it installs things as a non-admin user is not specific or inherent to its goal.
- lectrick 12y ago
  > That it installs things as a non-admin user is not specific or inherent to its goal. Yes, yes it is. I was there when it was originally released, and its most radical feature at the time (when root-installing package managers were prevalent) was the change of philosophy of putting things in userland. And 99% of installable code should live in userland. Without admin privs.
- tlrobinson 12y ago
  It's one of the key differences between Homebrew and existing OS X package managers (Macports, Fink) and they talk about it quite a lot on the homepage and installation instructions. IMHO one of the reasons it's more popular. "The standard script installs Homebrew to /usr/local so that you don’t need sudo when you brew install" https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/blob/master/share/doc/homebrew/Installation.md#installation https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/blob/master/share/doc/h... "Homebrew installs packages to their own directory and then symlinks their files into /usr/local." "Homebrew won’t install files outside its prefix, and you can place a Homebrew installation wherever you like." http://brew.sh/ http://brew.sh/
tbirdz 12y ago
Nix
davexunit 12y ago
>Is there a Linux package manager that puts everything in userland in a place like /usr/local? GNU Guix and Nix. I am a core developer for GNU Guix.
jessedhillon 12y ago
> 1) To install things in userland No halfway-knowledgeable linux user cares about this because... If not, then it installs things into the operating system, essentially. ...this is only true for a Mac, where a third party comes in and opaquely modifies your entire filesystem with no accountability. On a linux distro the OS is upgraded through the package manager, so a userland install is not a needed feature. And Homebrew has a terrible track record with #2 as well. Certainly it's not going to beat any of the forementioned package managers.

stephenr 12y ago

The whole point of Homebrew is to be a package manager for OS X, and it's only popular because its the best of several shit options. That it installs things as a non-admin user is not specific or inherent to its goal.

lectrick 12y ago
> That it installs things as a non-admin user is not specific or inherent to its goal. Yes, yes it is. I was there when it was originally released, and its most radical feature at the time (when root-installing package managers were prevalent) was the change of philosophy of putting things in userland. And 99% of installable code should live in userland. Without admin privs.
tlrobinson 12y ago
It's one of the key differences between Homebrew and existing OS X package managers (Macports, Fink) and they talk about it quite a lot on the homepage and installation instructions. IMHO one of the reasons it's more popular. "The standard script installs Homebrew to /usr/local so that you don’t need sudo when you brew install" https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/blob/master/share/doc/homebrew/Installation.md#installation https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/blob/master/share/doc/h... "Homebrew installs packages to their own directory and then symlinks their files into /usr/local." "Homebrew won’t install files outside its prefix, and you can place a Homebrew installation wherever you like." http://brew.sh/ http://brew.sh/

tbirdz 12y ago

Nix

davexunit 12y ago

>Is there a Linux package manager that puts everything in userland in a place like /usr/local? GNU Guix and Nix. I am a core developer for GNU Guix.

jessedhillon 12y ago

> 1) To install things in userland No halfway-knowledgeable linux user cares about this because... If not, then it installs things into the operating system, essentially. ...this is only true for a Mac, where a third party comes in and opaquely modifies your entire filesystem with no accountability. On a linux distro the OS is upgraded through the package manager, so a userland install is not a needed feature. And Homebrew has a terrible track record with #2 as well. Certainly it's not going to beat any of the forementioned package managers.