Re: Which variable expands to /var?

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello,

* Eric Blake wrote on Fri, Feb 08, 2008 at 03:36:21AM CET:
> According to Keith Marshall on 2/7/2008 3:57 PM:
> |
> | Wouldn't `--enable-fhs' be a better fit with the GCS dictum on how
> | `--enable-*' and `--use-*' options are to be applied?
> 
> I think the idea has merit; it seems like we would provide a macro
> AC_ENABLE_FHS, which if invoked, will add the --enable-fhs
> ./configure-time option (or should we provide --enable-fhs
> unconditionally?).

Maybe I'm being dense, but there are lots of users complaining that
configure already has far too many options.  And you want to introduce
yet another one as a shortcut for either
  ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=var \
    --sharedstatedir=/var

or

cat >path/to/config.site <<EOF
# Change to FHS defaults if installing below /usr, and the
# respective other settings have not been changed on the command line.
if test "$prefix" = /usr; then
  test "$sysconfdir" = '$prefix/etc' && localstatedir=/etc
  test "$sharedstatedir" = '$prefix/com' && sharedstatedir=/var
  test "$localstatedir" = '$prefix/var' && localstatedir=/var
fi
EOF

(where the latter is even a one-time operation)?

May I ask why?  I don't get it.  If this needs better documentation, the
let's put it up somewhere visible.  But really, if anything then
configure options should be made more orthogonal, not even more
overlapping.

Thanks for enlightening me.
Ralf