Re: conditional install dirs vs. mkdir_p

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Fri, 2004-01-09 at 00:31, Alexandre Duret-Lutz wrote:
> >>> "Ralf" == Ralf Corsepius <address@hidden> writes:
> 
>  Ralf> Given a Makefile.am, that conditionally installs headers to a directory
>  Ralf> defined inside of the condition, similar to this:

>  Ralf> make install
>  Ralf> make[1]: Entering directory `/tmp/autobug'
>  Ralf> make[1]: Nothing to be done for `install-exec-am'.
>  Ralf> mkdir -m 0755 -p --
>  Ralf> mkdir: too few arguments
>  Ralf> Try `mkdir --help' for more information.
>  Ralf> make[1]: *** [install-include_fooHEADERS] Error 1
>  Ralf> make[1]: Leaving directory `/tmp/autobug'
> 
>  -> mkdir -p is invoked with an empty directory and chokes.
> 
> Damned.  And so would `install-sh -d'.  Worse, `install-sh -d'
> does not accept multiple arguments, but $(mkdir_p) is used that
> way in `make installdirs'.
> 
> I'm installing the following patch on HEAD and branch-1-8.

This patch seems to remedy the problem above, but there seems to be more:

Given this Makefile.am:
if HAVE_FOO
include_HEADERS = foo.h
endif

Configuring with an includedir, which neither exists nor do I have write
access to:
# configure --includedir=/usr/local/foo/bar

[/usr/local exists, but /usr/local/foo/bar doesn't]

This happens with current automake-1.8/CVS:
# make install
make[1]: Entering directory `/users/corsepiu/autobug-0.1'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for `install-exec-am'.
mkdir -p -- . /usr/local/foo/bar
mkdir: cannot create directory `/usr/local/foo': Permission denied
make[1]: *** [install-includeHEADERS] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/users/corsepiu/autobug-0.1'
make: *** [install-am] Error 2

=> automake tries to create the directory, though it is not used.

This only happens if using include_HEADERS, but doesn't happen with my 1
example (include_foo_HEADERS). 

Wouldn't rewriting the installation rules into something similar to
this:
if test x'$(xxx_HEADERS)' != x; then mkdir $xxxdir; \
  list='$(xxx_HEADERS)'; for i in $$list; do \
  [..]
fi
help?

Ralf