This directory is where we store the architecture independent files that are needed when you are forced to install Macaulay 2 manually.
Starting with release 1.1, except under Macintosh OS X, there are two files that must be downloaded, one containing the files needed just for your architecture, and the other containing the files shared in common by all distributions. The former includes an indication of the architecture in its name, and the latter includes the word "common" in its name. An example:
Macaulay2-1.1-i386-Linux.tar.gz Macaulay2-1.1-common.tar.gz
Warning: eventually we may have to subdivide this common area. For example, there may be some systems where the emacs info files are deposited in /usr/info, and some where they are deposited in /usr/share/info. (The latter is where we put them.) We hope we don't run into incompatibilities of that type.
The files in this directory are the ones with "common" in their names.