Re: Problems installing mysql

[Mo McKinlay <mmckinlay at labs dot interopen dot org>]

# I noted that when I finalized the install for gcc the path to
# usr/local/bin where gcc resides is not charged on the environment variable
# PATH. 

This is the job of the system administrator (or whomever installed gcc),
not 'make install'. Having an installation program alter the profile for
all or some users would be a complex process, and quite often wouldn't
produce the required results. Consider:

- Is the profile for the current user altered, or the global profiles in
/etc?

- Does the user want the profile altering at all?

- Which shells does the installation program change the profile for? All
it can find profiles for, or just the current shell? What happens if it
doesn't know how to deal with a shell?

- Where in the path does the installation program put the path to the
newly installed program?

After answering all these questions (and probably many others I can't
think of off the top of my head), you'll wish you'd just had the option to
edit your profile yourself. ;-)

Being as $PREFIX/bin is generally a commonly-used path (e.g.,
/usr/local/bin), it's generally safe to assume that the given path will
already be in the user's $PATH; and if it isn't, that there's a good
reason for it (often that they haven't got around to it yet).

And that is why the installation didn't add /usr/local/bin to your PATH.
:-)

-- 
Mo McKinlay                                T: +44 (0) 709 22 55 05  x1
Chief Software Architect                   F: +44 (0) 709 22 55 05  x3
inter/open                                 E: mmckinlay@labs.interopen.org
A division of Bekon Marketing Limited      W: http://www.interopen.org