Re: WARNING: default LWP install on Mac OS X is bad, Bad, BAD
Reinier Post (reinpost@win.tue.nl)
Thu, 19 Apr 2001 10:10:04 +0200
On Thu, Apr 19, 2001 at 09:21:27AM +0200, Reinier Post wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 17, 2001 at 06:42:00PM -0700, Joseph N. Hall wrote:
> > A default install of LWP on the currently shipping Mac OS X places HEAD in
> > /usr/bin/HEAD. Unfortunately this is a case-insensitive filesystem. So long
> > /usr/bin/head. I discovered this as I was preparing to install Xfree86 and now
> > I have no /usr/bin/head. Phooey.
>
> This is why third-party software is usually installed in /usr/local.
> You changed that default, so the consequences are up to you - although
> I would never have anticipated this particular problem.
My mistake. I just installed a new Perl from the CPAN shell, and it
uses a prefix of /usr/local - but vendors who supply Perl in /usr/bin
change the default prefix to /usr, I just verified this on RedHat Linux.
So while I was wrong to blame Joseph, the general point remains that
filename conflicts may occur just as well on case-insensitive
filesystems. It's better if LWP avoids such conflicts but it
isn't unique if it doesn't.
--
Reinier