Before today, I've used the terminal to a limited extent of moving in and out of directories and changing the dates of files using the touch
command. I had realised the full extent of the terminal after installing a fun script on Mac and having to chmod 755
the file to make it executable afterwards.
I'd like to know what /usr/local/bin
is, though. /usr/
, I assume, is the user of the computer. I'm not sure why /local/
is there, though. It obviously stands for the local computer, but since it's on the computer (or a server), would it really be necessary? Wouldn't /usr/bin
be fine?
And what is /bin
? Why is this area usually used for installing scripts onto the terminal?
Best Answer
/usr/local/bin
is for programs that a normal user may run./usr/local
hierarchy is for use by the system administrator when installing software locally./usr
./usr/local
rather than /usr unless it is being installed to replace or upgrade software in/usr
.This source helps explain the filesystem hierarchy standard on a deeper level.
You might find this article on the use and abuse of
/usr/local/bin
interesting as well.