[Wine] Using Wine across distros with symlink

[Martin Gregorie]

On Sun, 2011-12-04 at 21:16 -0600, BobTheBull wrote:
> So then, why don't we call them what they are, sub directories or
> folders, rather than prefixes. Prefix: something placed before and
> which modifies the root. Don't see the descriptive here.
> 
It sounds descriptive to me. It *IS* a prefix to the structure that
corresponds to a set of Windows filing systems (C:, D:, etc.).

> All that aside, presumably a prefix can be located anywhere, not just
> in /home/username? One of the goals is to locate them outside home so
> that if a clean install is needed, including reformatting home, all
> your program installs and configurations in wine are not lost and have
> to be redone from scratch.
> 
With all due respect, you've got that backwards. The basic plot for
painless upgrades is to put /home in a separate disk partition so you
can easily reformat everything else. I've been arranging my Linux system
this way for the last 10 years and haven't yet found a need to reformat
the /home partition. A useful side effect is that you don't need to back
anything outside this partition provided you're prepared to do a clean
install after a disk crash.
 
See http://www.libelle-systems.com/free/linux/easier_upgrades.html for a
fuller explanation of my approach.

> And how does wine know which prefix to use? Can particular programs be
> associated with a given prefix?
> 
Easily - I use  wrapper script per program with the prefix set inside
it. This means that, whether you run the script from the command line or
associate a desktop icon with it, the correct prefix is used every time.
There are other methods you can use, but this one works for me.


Martin