GNU Coding standards and 'datarootdir'

[Eric Blake]

I have noticed an inconsistency between autoconf and the GNU Coding 
Standards.  According to the standards, 
http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards_54.html#SEC54, Makefiles should provide 
$(datarooddir) which defaults to `$(prefix)/share', so that $(datadir) 
[`$(datarooddir)'], $(infodir) [`$(datarooddir)/info'], and $(mandir) 
[`$(datarooddir)/man'] can all use this location.  These defaults also match 
with the FHS, which recommends /usr/share/{info,man} for info and man files, 
respectively, rather than /usr/{info,man} which occur with a default of 
$(prefix)/man.

However, section 4.7.2 of the autoconf manual version 2.57 makes no mention 
of the datarooddir variable, and does not list defaults for the variables 
that it does mention.  It would be nice if the documentation would list the 
defaults of these variables, but I found the defaults by running autoconf on 
a trivial configure.ac, then calling `configure --help':

Fine tuning of the installation directories:
  --bindir=DIR           user executables [EPREFIX/bin]
  --sbindir=DIR          system admin executables [EPREFIX/sbin]
  --libexecdir=DIR       program executables [EPREFIX/libexec]
  --datadir=DIR          read-only architecture-independent data [PREFIX/share]
  --sysconfdir=DIR       read-only single-machine data [PREFIX/etc]
  --sharedstatedir=DIR   modifiable architecture-independent data [PREFIX/com]
  --localstatedir=DIR    modifiable single-machine data [PREFIX/var]
  --libdir=DIR           object code libraries [EPREFIX/lib]
  --includedir=DIR       C header files [PREFIX/include]
  --oldincludedir=DIR    C header files for non-gcc [/usr/include]
  --infodir=DIR          info documentation [PREFIX/info]
  --mandir=DIR           man documentation [PREFIX/man]

Notice that infodir and mandir are still using PREFIX, rather than DATAROOTDIR.

The GNU Coding Standards also mention lispdir and localedir, which do not 
show up in the configure documentation (and in fact, the Coding Standards 
have to give a workaround for how to properly define lispdir when using 
Autoconf).

While I am on the topic, it looks like a couple of years ago, a similar 
conversation was held over whether autoconf should provide a docdir, so that 
non-standard things like html files could go in $(docdir)/html/, rather than 
$(datadir)/doc/html:
http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/autoconf/2001-06/msg00233.html
But it looks like nothing ever came of that conversation.

Whether or not you decide to add a $(docdir), $(lispdir), and $(localedir), 
I would like to see $(datarootdir) added to autoconf, with the proper 
updates to $(mandir) and $(infodir), so that my Makefiles can better follow 
the GNU Coding Standards.

--
Someday, I might put a cute statement here.

Eric Blake             address@hidden