Re: [Nmh-workers] 1.7's `make clean' is Overzealous.

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi David,

> Ralph wrote:
> >     Do not expect the user to include the subdirectory name in the
> >     value of any of the variables listed above.  The idea of having
> >     a uniform set of variable names for installation directories is
> >     to enable the user to specify the exact same values for several
> >     different GNU packages.  In order for this to be useful, all the
> >     packages must be designed so that they will work sensibly when
> >     the user does so.
>
> autoconf has already taken care of this for docdir:
>
>     docdir = ${datarootdir}/doc/${PACKAGE_TARNAME}
>
> (${PACKAGE_TARNAME} defaults to nmh for nmh.)
> Why not for libexecdir and sysconfdir, as well?

Because /usr/share/doc has traditionally always had subdirectories under
it as otherwise everyone's README would clash?

> I don't feel strongly about this.  Fedora and RedHat always provide
> the respective configure options, so the defaults won't matter there,
> after we fix things to not append /nmh.

Except it doesn't, now, seem broken so no fix is required?  After a
`make prefix=/tmp/nmh install' I get these directories, and they match
autoconf's documentation.

    /tmp/nmh/bin
    /tmp/nmh/etc/nmh
    /tmp/nmh/libexec/nmh
    /tmp/nmh/share/doc/nmh/contrib
    /tmp/nmh/share/man/man{1,5,7,8}

Yes, `nmh' appears in the path twice, or three times in Steve's (we're
in the wrong thread here) `/big/local/pkg/nmh/root-nmh-1.7/etc/nmh', but
nothing breaks.  If the default was to not use `etc/nmh' then /etc would
be polluted with all those mhl.* and scan.* clutter that have accrued
over the decades, or the vaguely named /libexec/{ap,dp}, and users are
justified in assuming the default `./configure' avoids that without
needed a special invocation to tack `nmh' onto `etc'.

At best, a configure option could disable appending `nmh' to two of the
three, but it doesn't seem worth the code and documentation to achieve
this, for the author or all those readers that will have to decide if
they need it.

Nothing's broke?

-- 
Cheers, Ralph.
https://plus.google.com/+RalphCorderoy