hpr_transcripts/hpr1896.txt

Episode: 1896
Title: HPR1896: User Local Software
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1896/hpr1896.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 10:54:25

---

This is HPR Episode 1896 entitled user local software.
It is hosted by first-time ghost Eric Newhamel and is about 4 minutes long.
The summary is Eric describes a technique for organizing and working on user installed source code and by the reason.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by AnanasThost.com.
Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HPR15, that's HPR15.
Better web hosting that's honest and fair at AnanasThost.com.
Hello my name is Eric Newhamel and for my first hacker public radio recording I decided on a topic that
comes from a personal journey to discover a way of doing something that happens to be of interest to me and hopefully other hackers.
Ever since I started really using GNU Slash Linux I wondered where to put programs that weren't installed by the computer itself.
In the root folder there's Slashbin, Slashlib, etc. that seem to be occupied by the GNU programs and libraries.
Also in the root folder there's Slashuser which has its own Slashbin, Slashlib, etc. subfolders that seem to be populated by the programs and libraries of the overall computer system, for instance the Debian operating system.
However programs I download and install myself typically stayed somewhere in my slash home or downloads directory which seems neither organized nor efficient.
Eventually I noticed Slashuser slash local which has its own Slashbin, Slashlib, and even Slash Source subfolders which stay empty until you install on some program you've downloaded yourself.
This seemed like a place that was meant for a user installed source code in programs so I started using it.
However it's limited to administrative access and storing and compiling source code as an administrator doesn't seem efficient or safe to me.
Then I noticed a subfolder in my slash home folder called dot local.
It's occupied by configuration files from some of the programs installed by the computer system but it's in my personal slash home folder and doesn't require administrative
permissions. So dot local started to seem like a logical place for source code and compiled programs that I downloaded myself.
However dot local is occupied by a lot of other programs configuration files and it's a hidden folder so it seems crowded and not sure it's really the place but it did give me an idea.
The slash home folder is the user's personal folder designed to store their important media and other files and is therefore occupied by the non-hidden subfolders desktop, documents, downloads, music, pictures, etc.
In here I created a non-hidden subfolder called local or the lowercase L under which I replicated the structure that came from my previous ideas and observations.
So I have local slash source local slash share local slash live here I have one organized place to unzip source code and for pre compiled binaries that don't come with source I decided on local slash opt.
Other programs don't touch this folder so it's exclusively for stuff that I've downloaded myself also it's not hidden so I can find it easily and I don't forget to back it up when I need to.
As of now I've been using this technique for months and it works really well I'll unzip any source code into home slash local slash source and compile it there as well as type install from there and I just leave it there for a later usage this makes it easy to find again but it also keeps it out of the way of my other files and my home folder stays uncluttered pre compiled programs like Zenodic go into home slash local slash opt with the same results.
Alright that's it although this is just a personal choice I've made for personal reasons in my computing I hope my ideas are of use or interest to other hackers and I hope you've enjoyed my first podcast until next time happy hacking and I look forward to everyone else's shows in the future.
You've been listening to Hacker Public Radio at Hacker Public Radio dot org we are a community podcast network that releases shows every weekday Monday through Friday.
Today's show like all our shows was contributed by an HBR listener like yourself if you ever thought of recording a podcast then click on our contributing to find out how easy it really is.
Hacker Public Radio was founded by the digital dog pound and the infonomicon computer club and it's part of the binary revolution at binwreff.com.
If you have comments on today's show please email the host directly leave a comment on the website or record a follow-up episode yourself.
Unless otherwise stated today's show is released on the creative comments, attribution, share a light 3.0 license.
Initial commit: HPR Knowledge Base MCP Server - MCP server with stdio transport for local use - Search episodes, transcripts, hosts, and series - 4,511 episodes with metadata and transcripts - Data loader with in-memory JSON storage 🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code) Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com> 2025-10-26 10:54:13 +00:00			`Episode: 1896`
			`Title: HPR1896: User Local Software`
			`Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1896/hpr1896.mp3`
			`Transcribed: 2025-10-18 10:54:25`

			`---`

			`This is HPR Episode 1896 entitled user local software.`
			`It is hosted by first-time ghost Eric Newhamel and is about 4 minutes long.`
			`The summary is Eric describes a technique for organizing and working on user installed source code and by the reason.`
			`This episode of HPR is brought to you by AnanasThost.com.`
			`Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HPR15, that's HPR15.`
			`Better web hosting that's honest and fair at AnanasThost.com.`
			`Hello my name is Eric Newhamel and for my first hacker public radio recording I decided on a topic that`
			`comes from a personal journey to discover a way of doing something that happens to be of interest to me and hopefully other hackers.`
			`Ever since I started really using GNU Slash Linux I wondered where to put programs that weren't installed by the computer itself.`
			`In the root folder there's Slashbin, Slashlib, etc. that seem to be occupied by the GNU programs and libraries.`
			`Also in the root folder there's Slashuser which has its own Slashbin, Slashlib, etc. subfolders that seem to be populated by the programs and libraries of the overall computer system, for instance the Debian operating system.`
			`However programs I download and install myself typically stayed somewhere in my slash home or downloads directory which seems neither organized nor efficient.`
			`Eventually I noticed Slashuser slash local which has its own Slashbin, Slashlib, and even Slash Source subfolders which stay empty until you install on some program you've downloaded yourself.`
			`This seemed like a place that was meant for a user installed source code in programs so I started using it.`
			`However it's limited to administrative access and storing and compiling source code as an administrator doesn't seem efficient or safe to me.`
			`Then I noticed a subfolder in my slash home folder called dot local.`
			`It's occupied by configuration files from some of the programs installed by the computer system but it's in my personal slash home folder and doesn't require administrative`
			`permissions. So dot local started to seem like a logical place for source code and compiled programs that I downloaded myself.`
			`However dot local is occupied by a lot of other programs configuration files and it's a hidden folder so it seems crowded and not sure it's really the place but it did give me an idea.`
			`The slash home folder is the user's personal folder designed to store their important media and other files and is therefore occupied by the non-hidden subfolders desktop, documents, downloads, music, pictures, etc.`
			`In here I created a non-hidden subfolder called local or the lowercase L under which I replicated the structure that came from my previous ideas and observations.`
			`So I have local slash source local slash share local slash live here I have one organized place to unzip source code and for pre compiled binaries that don't come with source I decided on local slash opt.`
			`Other programs don't touch this folder so it's exclusively for stuff that I've downloaded myself also it's not hidden so I can find it easily and I don't forget to back it up when I need to.`
			`As of now I've been using this technique for months and it works really well I'll unzip any source code into home slash local slash source and compile it there as well as type install from there and I just leave it there for a later usage this makes it easy to find again but it also keeps it out of the way of my other files and my home folder stays uncluttered pre compiled programs like Zenodic go into home slash local slash opt with the same results.`
			`Alright that's it although this is just a personal choice I've made for personal reasons in my computing I hope my ideas are of use or interest to other hackers and I hope you've enjoyed my first podcast until next time happy hacking and I look forward to everyone else's shows in the future.`
			`You've been listening to Hacker Public Radio at Hacker Public Radio dot org we are a community podcast network that releases shows every weekday Monday through Friday.`
			`Today's show like all our shows was contributed by an HBR listener like yourself if you ever thought of recording a podcast then click on our contributing to find out how easy it really is.`
			`Hacker Public Radio was founded by the digital dog pound and the infonomicon computer club and it's part of the binary revolution at binwreff.com.`
			`If you have comments on today's show please email the host directly leave a comment on the website or record a follow-up episode yourself.`
			`Unless otherwise stated today's show is released on the creative comments, attribution, share a light 3.0 license.`