Re: [Groff] Re: Bug#216819: pic2graph included in groff is broke

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Colin,

> >   if [ -e /usr/tmp ] ; then ... ; else ... ; fi
> > 
> > should be used. Otherwise, someone installing groff would fail if
> > the file did not exist, and it would not be at all obvious to the
> > ordinary user how to fix it.
> 
> In principle, yes, this makes sense; but has there ever been a Unix
> system without /tmp?

Probably not, but historically /tmp is on the / partition and is
available when only / is mounted.  It is correspondingly *small*.
/usr/tmp is part of the /usr partition and is larger and the normal
place most programs used for temporary space, e.g. sort(1).  /var/tmp is
a newcomer  ;-)

The environment variable TMPDIR lets the user override this, tempnam(3).

So I'd suggest the script should

    Use $TMPDIR if TMPDIR is set.
    Use the first of
        /usr/tmp
        /var/tmp
        /tmp
    that exist.

Cheers,


Ralph.