I'd like to move the "-c" argument usually attached to the end of the
definition of "INSTALL" over to those "INSTALL_*" macros that need it.
This has bugged me for a long time and I finally encountered a real
situation where I couldn't easily hack around the problem.
It turns out that some versions of *BSD "install" (aka xinstall.c in the
4.4bsd distribution) don't allow '-c' and '-d' at the same time (and
strictly speaking none should). I tripped over this most recently in
NetBSD-1.3.3, but it no doubt has existed at times elsewhere. The
-current source for NetBSD now allows this combination and basically
ignores the '-c' when '-d' is used.
So while this won't be a direct issue for me for very much longer (as I
gradually migrate all the machines I support onto newer releases), I
suspect it's not an entirely rare problem.
Of course this crops up because some authors using Autoconf (and
Automake) have the (good, in my opinion) habit of using "install -d" to
create new directories (instead of 'mkdir').
The one issue with this is that the '-c' flag may not be welcome with
100% of all "install" programs that are otherwise usable with GNU
makefiles. If this turns out to be a problem I think the best
alternative would be to add a new macro called "INSTALL_DIR" which could
then be set to "install-sh -d" if necessary or left as "install" but
which would not have the "-c" added and to encourage developers to fix
their packages to use "INSTALL_DIR" when necessary.
(BTW, once upon a time "install -d" was more than just a good thing
because "mkdir -p" didn't exist....)
Index: acspecific.m4
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/autoconf/acspecific.m4,v
retrieving revision 1.272
diff -c -c -r1.272 acspecific.m4
*** acspecific.m4 2000/05/28 16:27:56 1.272
--- acspecific.m4 2000/06/01 04:25:38
***************
*** 196,202 ****
# ---------------
AC_DEFUN([AC_PROG_INSTALL],
[AC_REQUIRE([AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR_DEFAULT])dnl
! # Find a good install program. We prefer a C program (faster),
# so one script is as good as another. But avoid the broken or
# incompatible versions:
# SysV /etc/install, /usr/sbin/install
--- 196,202 ----
# ---------------
AC_DEFUN([AC_PROG_INSTALL],
[AC_REQUIRE([AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR_DEFAULT])dnl
! # Find a good install program. We prefer a C program (faster and safer),
# so one script is as good as another. But avoid the broken or
# incompatible versions:
# SysV /etc/install, /usr/sbin/install
***************
*** 230,236 ****
# program-specific install script used by HP pwplus--don't use.
:
else
! ac_cv_path_install="$ac_dir/$ac_prog -c"
break 2
fi
fi
--- 230,236 ----
# program-specific install script used by HP pwplus--don't use.
:
else
! ac_cv_path_install="$ac_dir/$ac_prog"
break 2
fi
fi
***************
*** 256,268 ****
# Use test -z because SunOS4 sh mishandles braces in ${var-val}.
# It thinks the first close brace ends the variable substitution.
! test -z "$INSTALL_PROGRAM" && INSTALL_PROGRAM='${INSTALL}'
AC_SUBST(INSTALL_PROGRAM)dnl
! test -z "$INSTALL_SCRIPT" && INSTALL_SCRIPT='${INSTALL}'
AC_SUBST(INSTALL_SCRIPT)dnl
! test -z "$INSTALL_DATA" && INSTALL_DATA='${INSTALL} -m 644'
AC_SUBST(INSTALL_DATA)dnl
])# AC_PROG_INSTALL
--- 256,268 ----
# Use test -z because SunOS4 sh mishandles braces in ${var-val}.
# It thinks the first close brace ends the variable substitution.
! test -z "$INSTALL_PROGRAM" && INSTALL_PROGRAM='${INSTALL} -c'
AC_SUBST(INSTALL_PROGRAM)dnl
! test -z "$INSTALL_SCRIPT" && INSTALL_SCRIPT='${INSTALL} -c'
AC_SUBST(INSTALL_SCRIPT)dnl
! test -z "$INSTALL_DATA" && INSTALL_DATA='${INSTALL} -c -m 644'
AC_SUBST(INSTALL_DATA)dnl
])# AC_PROG_INSTALL
--
Greg A. Woods
+1 416 218-0098 VE3TCP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <robohack!woods>
Planix, Inc. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Secrets of the Weird <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
