How to install to /usr/bin directory?

Question

New to using Linux and trying to install software called PrinceXML in the /usr/bin directory.

I've logged in as the root user, used wget to download the package, ran tar and followed the steps to install. When asked I then chose default install directory (/usr/local). I tried again specifying /usr/bin/

When I try to access it via the PHP wrapper I get a blank screen, which I'm fairly certain is because the software is installed in the wrong location.

Any guidance as to how to install into the /usr/bin directory would be greatly appreciated.

This is the call from the wrapper:

  $prince = new Prince('/usr/bin/prince');

Answer 1

You specified /usr/bin as the prefix, rather than simply /usr. Probably your program is now distributed across /usr/bin/lib, /usr/bin/share, /usr/bin/bin etc.

You really shouldn't mess around with /usr/bin, your package manager manages this directory. Try to incrementally uninstall your software and reconfigure it again with /usr/local or /opt/prince as the install directory. Then adapt the wrapper to call the correct binary.

Answer 2

Wouldn't you specify /usr instead of /usr/local if you wanted it in /usr/bin instead of /usr/local/bin?

Where is it installed? You can use the which command to find out where it is in your path. Does your PHP program need to specify an absolute path, or can it execute it with just the app name?

$prince = new Prince('prince');