Re: [Mingw-users] MSYS_PREFIX_HACK

[Keith MARSHALL]

Stepan Kasal wrote:
> Keith Marshall wrote:
>>   ac_default_prefix=`exec 2>/dev/null;cd /usr/local&&pwd -W` ||\
>>     ac_default_prefix=/usr/local
>
> This is a possible solution, but I'd like to propose something simpler:
>
> AC_INIT reads file config.site at its initialization file.
> So if the MSYS install process ensures that /usr/local/share/config.site
> is present and assigns ac_default_prefix, then everything should work.
>
> I hope this solution is acceptable to you.

I confess that I hadn't considered the possibility of using config.site
to override the `ac_default_prefix=/usr/local' set by AC_INIT.  It does
look like an elegant solution, subject to a couple of caveats:

1) If a user has created a customised config.site, he needs
   to be careful not to clobber it with an MSYS upgrade.

2) If a configure.ac script uses AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT or
   AC_PREFIX_PROGRAM, that will override the effect of the
   config.site initialisation, probably resulting in an
   invalid prefix assignment for the MSYS/MinGW build,
   since these would normally specify POSIX paths.

Of course, the second of these problems is not addressed by the simple
patch I proposed either.  Could this also be handled by config.site, or
will it be necessary to modify the definitions of AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT and
AC_PREFIX_PROGRAM to achieve my desired effect?  I have explored this a
bit further, and could work up an RFC for a simple patch, if you think
it worth pursuing.

Best regards,
Keith.