CyclohexaneNoob Question Thread: Ask Any Questions About Linux!
BlizzardWhy do programs install somewhere instead of asking me where to?
EDIT: Thank you all, well explained.
penquinI wish every single app installed in the same directory. Would make life so much easier.
Lunya \ she/itThey do!
/bin has the executables, and /usr/share has everything else.
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/applications has your system-wide .desktop files, (while .local/share/applications has user-level ones, kinda analogous to installing a program to AppData on Windows). And .desktop files 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/bin or 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.