Re: System files and "make distcheck"

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Mon, 27 Jun 2011, address@hidden wrote:
> It looks as if the standard GNU installation method would require
> every user to run ./configure --sysconfdir=/etc, whereas most would
> just try the usual ./configure && make.  Given the choice between
> a convenient installation for the user, and a working distcheck, I
> think I'll have to take the convenient installation.

Packages which write into system directories without being 
specifically requested to are downright frightful.  It totally 
violates the trust that a package won't do anything "bad" at time of 
'make install' as the root user.  If packages start doing this, then 
it is necessary to thoroughly inspect 'make -n install' output to make 
sure that the package is not voilating the rules.  Users put a lot of 
trust into open source packages that they don't violate these rules. 
I don't recommend that a package install any files other than under 
the specified prefix (which should always be /usr/local by default) , 
or specified directories.

It seems to me that the package should be fixed to accept 
configuration files from elsewhere (e.g. $PREFIX/usr/etc).

Bob
--
Bob Friesenhahn
address@hidden, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/