Feature request: setting env vars for binary wrappers

[Behdad Esfahbod]

Hi,

This is a feature request for libtool.  Let me describe the
problem as I face it, so you may have a workaround for it
already:  I'm using libtool in the Pango text rendering engine.
The Pango library accesses a file in $prefix/etc/pango/pangorc to
find its modules at run-time.  Now all I want to do is to be able
to run the examples in pango/example when Pango is not installed.

The easiest way that can be done is to set the PANGO_RC_PATH
envvar to a special pangorc file.  Another is to pass the
--pangorc path-to-pango-rc to the examples if they understand it.
What I need from libtool is to let me do one of these things in
the wrapper it creates for uninstalled binaries.

Do you think this can be done already?  Do you see adding support
for something like this a useful feature?  I know there are
several projects facing similar problems (like finding their
.glade interface definition file when not installed), and they
each come up with their own workaround, many of which include
hardcoding the build path into the binary and looking there as an
alternative location...


Cheers,

--behdad
http://behdad.org/

"Commandment Three says Do Not Kill, Amendment Two says Blood Will Spill"
        -- Dan Bern, "New American Language"