Linux /var directory vs /opt directory

Question

From my limited experience in linux, I find a lot of 3rd party programs are installed by default to:

/opt

One program in particular, torque, installs by default to:

/var/spool/torque

I can override this with

./configure --with-server-home=/opt/torque

Is there any reason I should leave the default install directory alone, and not move it to

opt/torque?

I want someone who knows linux best practices to suggest where they think I should install it.

Update
I've researched File Hierarchy Standards (FHS). It seems like /opt and /var/opt are both valid locations for installing programs. I'd still like to know what is considered 'best practice' or even the most common location for installing applications.

Answer 1

There is more than one 'correct' place to install programs.

According to the Filesystem Hierarchy Standards, user programs are frequently installed to /opt/ or /usr/local

While there is nothing wrong with /var/spool/torque as your install directory, it does not follow the FHS.

Answer 2

This actually depends. If the program is a spooler then its installing in the correct location (that is var/spool). If not, then you should change it.

Also about opt vs var/opt generally in modern systems, the root directories (/run,/opt etc) and their "var" counterparts (/var/run,/var/opt) are treated as equal, and in many distros they are actually linked to one another.

So its pretty much your choise. Personally i choose to install under /var because many servers have it mounted on a different disk for data security and redundancy and i would like to make their life easier!