Re: Fine-grained install control

[Keith MARSHALL]

>> Does the placement of binaries in /usr/local/<package>/bin require
>> the user to add this to his PATH?  If so, man should then search
>> automatically in /usr/local/<package>/man, (at least the version
>> I've just ported to MinGW will).
>
> Do you know if this is the case on Linux, for example?

My port for MinGW is based on man-1.6 for Linux/UNIX, so, yes it
most definitely is.

> The manpage just points to /etc/man.config if neither MANPATH or
> -M <pathlist> is set, which sets a defined set of places to search.

Yep.  Those are the *fixed* locations, which it will normally search,
irrespective of PATH;  these are augmented at runtime, by looking for
"nearby" man directories for each and every directory in $PATH -- and
it defines "nearby" as a man subdirectory of the $PATH directory
itself, or of its immediate parent.  These normal and "nearby" paths
seem not to be searched, however, if you override man.config, (or
whatever your system calls it -- the man package default specifies
${prefix}/lib/man.conf), by specifying MANPATH or -M <path>.

You can use `man -d' to see where man will actually search; try:

  man -C /dev/null -d sometopic

(with no MANPATH set), to see only the directories which are found
as "nearby" to those on $PATH.

>> With this automatic MANPATH configuration, is it really so wrong
>> to install your man pages in /usr/local/<package>/man?
>
> Without a PATH requirement, I may be out of luck.

Seems likely.

> In fact, I've always wondered why the package itself (large) did
> not include manpages of any kind.  This could be the reason.
> Perhaps someone will come up with a way to offer better control.

If I were doing this myself, I'd probably avoid AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT
entirely; let ${prefix} control the installation paths, with the
Autoconf defaults unchanged, then write the Makefile install rules
to deploy to the ${prefix}/<package> directory, where appropriate.

Don't ask me how to do that, if you want to use Automake; I did
try it once, and found it so thoroughly disgusting, that I am not
likely to ever use it again; I prefer to keep fine grained control
in Makefiles under my own ministration, but you must make your own
choice.

Regards,
Keith.