Re: [Bug-guile-ncurses] Bug report, from guile-ncurses, make check

[Jean Louis]

On Sun, Nov 13, 2016 at 08:18:18AM +0300, Jean Louis wrote:
> Another thing, if I give to ./configure --prefix=/somewhere/else, it
> still asks guile where to install itself. In my opinion it should not,
> as --prefix is enough of a command telling it to install somewhere
> else. So I need to add the command: --with-gnu-filesystem-hierarchy
> that --prefix work. For me is that incorrect and not necessary.
> 
> Further, I did not find references to "GNU Filesystem Hierarchy". I
> wish I could have it. What is it? Where is it? I am not following the
> FSH and building a system from source, so this may be interesting or
> not. 

The above shall be corrected to be in accordance with GNU Coding
Standards: https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html

I am using GNU Stow, so packages get placed in /package, and /usr is
created by using symlinks, and I don't expect to have additional
configuration like --with-gnu-filesystem-hierarchy in order for
--prefix to work. --prefix alone should be enough.

I guess that option --with-gnu-filesystem-hierarchy including the help
output from ./configure --help in regards to "GNU Filesystem
Hierarchy" shall be removed. GNU systems shall be free of some imposed
standards or rules. That is why there is --prefix and other directory
specifications, so that everybody can freely decide where and how to
install packages.

Quote below:

7.2.5 Variables for Installation Directories

Installation directories should always be named by variables, so it is
easy to install in a nonstandard place. The standard names for these
variables and the values they should have in GNU packages are
described below. They are based on a standard file system layout;
variants of it are used in GNU/Linux and other modern operating
systems.

Installers are expected to override these values when calling make
(e.g., make prefix=/usr install) or configure (e.g., configure
--prefix=/usr). GNU packages should not try to guess which value
should be appropriate for these variables on the system they are being
installed onto: use the default settings specified here so that all
GNU packages behave identically, allowing the installer to achieve any
desired layout.