install-info inconsistency between Debian and GNU version

[Kai Großjohann]

Package: dpkg
Version: 1.6.15

The above two lines specify the Debian version.  The GNU version is
this:

/----
| address@hidden> install-info --version
| install-info (GNU texinfo) 4.0
\----

Quite a number of packages come with Makefiles which invoke
install-info for the installed info files.  The issue at hand is that
a different program is invoked on Debian systems than on other
systems.  Therefore, the Makefile entry has to be written to a common
subset for the command line syntax.  (The Debian people might claim
that it is sufficient to just install their package, which has been
frobbed in a useful manner.  But this is not always meaningful.
Consider the case where a Debian user is also a developer of some
package, where he wants to install the latest sources.  Then it is
useful to install right from the original sources.)

Concretely, I'm seeing this with Emacs 21, which does this:

${INSTALL_INFO} --info-dir=${infodir} ${infodir}/$$f

But on Debian, I have to do this:

${INSTALL_INFO} --infodir=${infodir} ${infodir}/$$f

Note "--infodir" versus "--info-dir".

Can you please talk to each other to arrange that the command line
syntax has a common subset which can be used in such Makefiles?

(Coming to think of this, the Debian folks could also provide the GNU
version of install-info as ginstall-info, say, then I could just frob
the INSTALL_INFO variable and would be a happy camper.)

The Debian folks can claim that they were there first and thus the GNU
folks should bloody well adjust to the standard they set.  The GNU
folks can claim that their install-info is more widely used and thus
the Debian folks should bloody well adjust to the standard they set.
Please don't get into a flamewar over this; it does not help the
users.  Maybe if you both change your program a little bit...

Thanks,
kai
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