Re: Directory names hard-coded in Texinfo Perl scripts

[Gavin Smith]

On Thu, Dec 16, 2021 at 11:52:19AM +0200, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I routinely make my MS-Windows/MinGW builds of Texinfo for others to
> use, here:
> 
>   https://sourceforge.net/projects/ezwinports/
> 
> Recently, a user complained to me that starting with Texinfo 6.7, the
> Texinfo Perl scripts won't work unless the binary distro is installed
> in the same directory for which I configured it.  This is unfortunate,
> since it requires users to modify their installation trees and/or PATH
> variables to follow my local conventions.

Can you be clearer as to what is meant by "binary distro"?  Is it the
files like /usr/lib/texinfo/XSParagraph.so?

I don't understand how the program can find these files if they are
moved from their installed locations.


> Would it be possible to restore the capability we evidently had in
> Texinfo 6.6 and before, whereby the Perl scripts could use directory
> names relative to their invocation directory?  I believe that code was
> changed for unrelated reasons (perhaps to support better the use-case
> of running Texinfo uninstalled?), but the ability to relocate the
> installation root of the scripts is IMO also valuable, regardless.

I can't remember the details of the changes.  Looking at
"git log tp/Texinfo/ModulePath.pm.in" it appears that there were some changes
shortly after 6.7 was released.  Are these the changes that were responsible?

> 
> Could we please resurrect this ability in a future release of Texinfo?
> 
> TIA
>