Terms used in this document

There are several terms and paths used in this document as place holders for configurable values. Those terms are described here.

  1. WINECONFDIR

    WINECONFDIR is the users Wine configuration directory. This is almost always ~/.wine, but can be overridden by the user by setting the WINECONFDIR environment variable.

  2. PREFIX

    PREFIX is the prefix used when selecting an installation target. The current default is /usr. This results in binary installation into /usr/bin, library installation into /usr/wine/lib, and so forth. This value can be overridden by the packager. In fact, FHS 2.1 specifications suggest that a better prefix is /opt/wine. Ideally, a packager would also allow the installer to override this value.

  3. ETCDIR

    ETCDIR is the prefix that Wine uses to find the global configuration directory. This can be changed by the configure option sysconfdir. The current default is /etc.

  4. WINDOWSDIR

    WINDOWSDIR is an important concept to Wine. This directory specifies what directory corresponds to the root Windows directory (e.g. C:\WINDOWS).

    This directory is specified by the user, in the users configuration file.

    Generally speaking, this directory is either set to point at an empty directory, or it is set to point at a Windows partition that has been mounted through the vfat driver.

    It is extremely important that the packager understand the importance of WINDOWSDIR and convey this information and choice to the end user.