Why run from /usr/bin when the app is installed in /opt?

General system Applications
1

Hey everyone,

Just a quick question for anyone that cares to explain (briefly/simply) or point to a readme somewhere?

I manually updated my discord today.
In doing so, I discovered that the kde app menu file calls

/usr/bin/discord

but that’s just a pointer-(? pointer, shortcut, soft-link,hard-link–which is this? I probably have the terminology wrong is why I am asking)

pointing to the actual executable

/opt/discord/Discord

Is this due to some security restrictions calling an app from /usr/bin as opposed to
/opt/appfolder ?

IF I call the app directly from /opt is this less secure or something?

Or am I completely off-base and it’s done this way for a different reason?

It just seems to “unclean” or “disorganized” to my ADHD addled brain.

I’m like thinking to myself I am going to just change the execute path on the desktop.application file in the app menu to the actual path /opt/discord/Discord and that will satisfy my OCD’d ADHD’d mush-brain.

Thanks everyone.

2

Shortcuts in /usr/bin are there to keep the PATH environment variable as short as possible (chiefly for performance reasons).

3

There are a couple of reasons:

  • /usr/bin is in your $PATH
  • It is standard to do so

If you do this, be sure to make a copy of the desktop in ~/.local/share/applications and edit it there. Never edit the original file.

Seems like that would make the system more messy and non-standard…

4

Hey Chalex20/Dalto,

TY for the quick posts.

I did not even think about environment variables.
That’s good enough for me all by itself.

I did edit desktop.app file in /opt/discord folder-because I was executing it from there and it would not run until I did that edit-I was just testing to see if I would get prompted to upgrade or not. When I did not I thought, I’ll just check the desktop app file and if it still prompts me to upgrade I’ll just use it right from the folder created by the extracting the tar until it is available via pacman or yay. Usually this is the same day or next. I was just having fun.

When it ran fine I thought is it running from where I put it or somewhere else? I looked at the menu entries settings and saw the execute path /usr/bin and I thought it was running from there not /opt/discord.

BUT I wasn’t sure so I did a ls -al /opt/discord and saw the link to /opt/discord.
Then I thought, why the link?

NOW you know my crazy, un-Linux-educated thought process goes.

Whenever the new version is available via pacman I am going to uninstall and then remove the left over directories if any, then reinstall fresh and that will undo any possibly damage I have done.

BUT, for now discord is working from the app menu and that’s all I really wanted :slight_smile:

5

you should follow the advice of @dalto

When you update there is a chance that the .desktop file will be updated along with it. By putting the desktop file in the

you wont have to edit the file again after the update