Re: Site Macro Directory

[Kenneth Pronovici]

> > Part two, designating a single directory as the site directory is not
> > going to be liked by everybody.  If Autoconf is installed as part of "the
> > system" under /usr, many people won't like to put AC files belonging to
> > "locally" installed packages somewhere under /usr/share or whereever it is
> > you want to put the site directory.
> 
> I'm not sure that I understand this objection.  It's a very common
> strategy to have a system-wide directory for things like this, as per
> the many examples we've discussed (header files in /usr/local/include,
> CPAN modules in Perl's site_perl directory, etc).  As long as the path
> to the site macro directory is configurable when autoconf is
> installed, I don't see how this would be much of a limitation.

I've been following this conversation sort of from the sidelines... but
I guess I can comment on this without being an autoconf expert. :-)  

Take this scenario: say I work on a large corporate box that has lots
of different users on it, most of whom I don't know.  The administrator
has previously installed autoconf in /usr/local and has configured the
site-wide directory as /usr/local/whatever during installation.  I would
like to add some "site-wide" macros for some projects I'm working on,
projects that no one else on the box has anything to do with.  In other
words, the macros are "site-wide" from my perspective, but not from the
perspective of the other 300+ users on the box, who don't even know
about them.

I, being a mere peon, cannot write to that /usr/local/whatever
directory.  I would have to go through a drawn-out change-request
process to get someone else to put files in that directory.  Maybe it
would get done within in a week, if the powers-that-be trust my macros
enough to put them in there (and if they even know what I'm talking
about, *sigh*).  This is a pain, and it really nails my productivity.

I think it would work better to choose a scheme that would let a given
autoconf user specify some list of site-wide directories for their
own use, with the default being to use just the /usr/local/whatever
directory specified at installation.  This makes the default case easy
but provides some flexibility for use by people who don't administer
their own box all of the time (like me). 

KEN

-- 
Kenneth J. Pronovici <address@hidden>
Personal Homepage: http://www.skyjammer.com/~pronovic/
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little 
 temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." 
      - Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

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