When you're a user installing software, you don't get to write to /usr/local. You have to use $HOME/usr or something and modify your path.
When you're an admin on a box, you can install software anywhere. You could totally './configure&&make&&make install' and your software lands in /usr/local. If you're lucky, there won't be any conflicts with existing earlier versions in /usr. But there's consequences.
Now you've built a lot of software and some of it depends on stuff you put in /usr/local. Now you need to upgrade. But is something going to break? What's the compatibility? How can I track what has been installed? Can I uninstall anything?
You don't realize how big of a mess you're getting into until you have to remove all of /usr/local just to get some working apps and start from scratch. Take the time to learn the package manager for your system, and package your software before installing. Hell, use checkinstall or some other tool to automate it.
I use my scripts called slacktools [https://github.com/psypete/public-bin/tree/public-bin/src/sl...] to automate packaging in Slackware. One command 'slackpack foo-1.4.5.tar.gz' builds me a Slackware package. Tiny modifications could make it build rpms, debs, etc. The benefit you get is actually upgrading old packages do you don't have conflicting versions, a sane default path, and the ability to remove or upgrade the package when necessary.
When you're a user installing software, you don't get to write to /usr/local. You have to use $HOME/usr or something and modify your path.
When you're an admin on a box, you can install software anywhere. You could totally './configure&&make&&make install' and your software lands in /usr/local. If you're lucky, there won't be any conflicts with existing earlier versions in /usr. But there's consequences.
Now you've built a lot of software and some of it depends on stuff you put in /usr/local. Now you need to upgrade. But is something going to break? What's the compatibility? How can I track what has been installed? Can I uninstall anything?
You don't realize how big of a mess you're getting into until you have to remove all of /usr/local just to get some working apps and start from scratch. Take the time to learn the package manager for your system, and package your software before installing. Hell, use checkinstall or some other tool to automate it.
I use my scripts called slacktools [https://github.com/psypete/public-bin/tree/public-bin/src/sl...] to automate packaging in Slackware. One command 'slackpack foo-1.4.5.tar.gz' builds me a Slackware package. Tiny modifications could make it build rpms, debs, etc. The benefit you get is actually upgrading old packages do you don't have conflicting versions, a sane default path, and the ability to remove or upgrade the package when necessary.