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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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What is the /opt directory? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 8 months ago by AlexPewMaster@lemmy.zip to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I've seen a lot of self-hosted software wanting to store their data in /opt, is there any reason why?

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[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Here's an example of how I have used it in the past (following the guidance in the other post).

I did a lot of Java development. Ubuntu has a package for OpenJDK which I installed, but I also need specific (and often multiple) versions not included by the package manager. So I would download a tarball and extract them to /opt/java-x.y.z/. Then for the version I considered my "current" I created a symlink at /opt/java to point to the version I wanted to use.