Re: GNUSTEP_FILESYSTEM_LAYOUT_FILE Re: [Gnustep-cvs] r31321 - in /tools/make/trunk: ChangeLog GNUstep.conf.in configure configure.ac

[Nicola Pero]

> Maybe the right thing to do is to do something similar to the 
> /etc/GNUstep/installation-domains.conf.  Ie, we could have gnustep-make's 
> configure load
> a new file,
> 
> /etc/GNUstep/default-filesystem-layout.conf
> 
> but only if it exists (it has to be created manually by an advanced user).  
> That file
> could contain a default layout/prefix which would be used if none are 
> specified on the
> configure command-line.

Yes,

I had a short discussion with Richard online.  I guess the main change that 
Richard wanted to do
is change the default filesystem layout to be 'fhs'.

Many people in this list (including me) actually use 'gnustep' as their default 
layout.  To help them
after the change, the idea was that you could put a file somewhere (either 
directly in core/make/preferences.conf, 
or in /etc/GNUstep/preferences.conf) with two (optional) lines

GNUSTEP_PREFERENCES_FILESYSTEM_LAYOUT=gnustep
GNUSTEP_PREFERENCES_PREFIX=/

./configure would read that file and use the values in there if nothing else is 
specified on the ./configure
command-line.

So, if you need 'gnustep' as the default layout, and configure and reconfigure 
gnustep-make very often, you
could create that file once and it would be reused forever.

Alternatively, people can always use the --enable-import-config-file option 
(already existing) but you still have
to type that option every time you configure gnustep-make.  (making it the 
default is impractical because it means that
the results of configure would depend on the results of previous configures, 
which would cause total confusion for new
users).

I wonder if autoconf has a way to specify configuration options in a local file 
?

Thanks

PS: An alternative would be to have configure print warnings if it detects that 
the new configuration is different
from the one in /etc/GNUstep/GNUstep.conf.  This is harder to implement, and 
has the disadvantage that it only warns
you, but you still have to type in your ./configure arguments ;-)