Re: Fine-grained install control

[Ralf Wildenhues]

FWIW: I did not answer Robert's mail to automake yet, precisely because
it's not trivial.

* Keith MARSHALL wrote on Thu, May 04, 2006 at 04:55:02PM CEST:
> Robert Lowe wrote:
> > I have a small project that needs to install executables under
> > /usr/local/<package>/, but the manpages under /usr/local/man.
> > If I use AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT in configure.ac to point to
> > /usr/local/<package>, how can I override it for manpages?

> Just a simple `off the cuff' suggestion.  A quick look in configure
> shows that it initialises mandir as:
> 
>   mandir='${prefix}/man'

Here it does
  mandir='${datarootdir}/man'

and that defaults to
  ${prefix}/share/man

(with Autoconf-2.59c, that is).

> *before* it parses the command line arguments, where that might be
> overridden by a `--mandir=...' option.  Thus, for one off use, you
> could just inline the assignment:
> 
>   mandir=`echo $mandir | sed s?^${prefix}?/usr/local?`
> 
> in your configure.ac.

Which will make your package blatantly incompatible with the old version
of the GCS; and will stop working once your package uses Autoconf-2.60
which supports the newer version.

> For a slightly more polished, and reusable solution, you could use
> something like:

Which has the same problem.

> to achieve the effect you desire, while still leaving the user the
> option to override this with `--mandir=...'.
> 
> The same macro could also be used to set an alternative default for,
> say, `infodir':
> 
>   RL_AC_DEFAULT_OVERRIDE([infodir],[^${prefix}],[/usr/local])
> 
> or any of the other default paths defined in terms of ${prefix},
> or even ${exec_prefix}.

Why not *just* *use* --mandir?  Why not a script that invokes
  configure --mandir=... $@

for you?  If that's too much, why not add a setting to your and your
preferred users' config.site file(s), so they don't have to remember
this?

Cheers,
Ralf