Mac /usr/local and homebrew [closed]

Question

Anyone know what a "virgin" /usr/local folder would look like on a brand new Mac? I should know, as I just got one, but I used Apple's Migration Assistant (which doesn't give you any details about what it's about to do) to migrate my Mail, Apps & things. Well, apparently leaving that curious "Other Files & Folder" setting checked means all my compiled tools and configuration files have come across as well (RMagick, Git, Mongoid, RVM, etc).

Problem is I was looking forward to taking this opportunity (new machine) to switch to HomeBrew as a package manager instead of doing the config/make/install dance on my own every time I want to update something. Besides, the versions that came over from older machine were compiled for different hardware and won't even work on this machine.

So, can I just dump or move everything in /usr/local and get going with homebrew? Any advice? Caveats? I think I also have some things in /opt/ too…

Answer 1

In Lion, /usr/local does not exist by default (although /usr/local/bin is in the default $PATH -- if you build it, they will come).