--- Alexandre Oliva <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Aug 26, 2000, Russ Allbery <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > Richard Stallman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> >> Which reminds me: $(sysconfdir) should never include $(prefix). If
> >> there's a common need for a configuration directory under $(prefix)
> >> then it should be represented by $(localconfdir) or some similarly
> >> named variable.
>
> >> This is a question I would like people to discuss more
> >> so we can figure out what to do.
>
> > Well, I can repeat my standard statement when things like this come up:
> > Any package which installs parts of itself somewhere other than under
> > $(prefix) unless it's explicitly configured to be installed as part of the
> > operating system is seriously broken.
>
> Agreed. The package can print a warning if --sysconfdir is not set to
> /etc and point the installer to the installation instructions, but it
> should not force people to overwrite files in /etc. I myself install
> a lot of software as a normal user, without write access to /etc, and
> I often have to fix packages that try to outsmart my installation
> procedures and fail due to lack of access to /etc. Ditto for packages
> that insist on `chown/chgrp'ing files to certain groups.
>
As a normal user I'm going to have to agree with Alexandre; however, from a
System Administrator's point of view I'll have to agree with Greg Woods. We
have clearly segregated the use of autoconf by the types of users in the
previous arguments. Since the configure script can, is, will be and was
intended to be executed by the "normal user" and since packages can be
configured with the --sysconfdir=/etc switch passed to the configure script to
facilitate the System Administrator's need to store the configuration files in
/etc then I'll have to say that the current $PREFIX/etc directory is the
correct default for configure.
BTW, in administering systems I would never allow someone else's idea of system
configuration to update my configuration files without manual intervention.
Therefore I would never --sysconfdir=/etc anyway.
Cheers,
=====
---
Earnie Boyd: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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