Re: libexecdir/datadir used incorrectly

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   >           make datadir=FOO
   >        should the data files go into FOO or into FOO/awk?  With your
   > 
   >    FOO.  If you said make datarootdir=FOO, they'd go into
   >    FOO/awk.
   > 
   > If and only if datarootdir was used of course

   I don't see such a condition in Karl's response.

datarootdir isn't used by gawk, so one can't tell the install process
where those file will be installed with datarootdir.  I.e.,

   make datarootdir=FOO

will change nothing, when the user will actually expect files to be
put in the root FOO.


As a follow up on the illogical assignment for datadir that gawk uses,
consider the following:

   configure --datadir=FOO             # datadir=FOO/awk
   make install datadir=FOO            # datadir=FOO

As a user I would expect those two to be the same at the very least,
and at at the very most: datadir=FOO/awk. :-)

Assuming that dataroodir isn't used and was never introduced into the
GCS, it would mean that the user has to have intimate knowledge of how
exactly datadir is assigned in gawk and any other GNU program.  And
then recall all these peculiar behaviours for each program, i.e. will

   make install datadir=FOO

install files in FOO/bar or FOO?  The latter, for what it is worth, is
what is used by most GNU programs right now (and most GNU programs
don't use datarootdir).


Phew... Cheers and happy hacking!