Re: System files and "make distcheck"

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello,

* address@hidden wrote on Sat, Jun 25, 2011 at 03:38:43PM CEST:
> I'm building a package which on installation writes to a file used
> to configure the GUI - this file is always in /etc, no matter where
> the package is installed.

What if I'm trying to bootstrap a new system, say, whose root lives in
/sys-root or so?

> When installing, that's not a problem,
> since installation is done as root, however I haven't found a way
> of letting me run "make distcheck" without error, since that is done
> as an ordinary user.
> 
> The entry in the main Makefile.am is approxmately:
> install-data-local:
>       grep xxx /etc/yyy || sed zzz /etc/yyy

Make sure the target directory is not /etc but something like
$(DISTDIR)$(sysconfdir), so that both
  make install DESTDIR=/sys-root

and
  make install prefix=/sys-root

have a chance of succeeding.

> The problem is to avoid this set of commands being run when
> distcheck is the target.  I've tried using DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
> but the main Makefile is written before this variable is valid.  This
> problem must have ocurred before - what's the usual solution?

See above, and also 'info Automake "Hard-Coded Install Paths"'.  Hope
that helps.

Cheers,
Ralf