Where to install files

This question is not really contested. It will vary by distribution, and is really up to the packager. As a guideline, the current 'make install' process seems to behave such that if we pick a single PREFIX, then :

  1. all binary files go into PREFIX/bin,

  2. all library files go into PREFIX/lib,

  3. all include files go into PREFIX/include,

  4. all documentation files go into PREFIX/doc/wine,

  5. and man pages go into PREFIX/man,

Refer to the specific information on the Debian package and the OpenLinux package for specific details on how those packages are built.

You might also want to use the wine wrapper script winelauncher that can be found in tools/ directory, as it has several important advantages over directly invoking the wine binary. See the Executable Files section for details.

The question of /opt/wine

The FHS 2.1 specification suggests that Wine as a package should be installed to /opt/wine. None of the existing packages follow this guideline (today; check again tomorrow).