On 03/13/2012 08:55 AM, Robert Boehne wrote: >> >> So we're in a sort of a tie here: some users think that the current >> Automake >> behaviour is a feature (and I lean toward that position), other ones >> (with >> Ralf among them, apparently) believe it's a bug. Hmmm. What now? >> >> Regards, >> Stefano > > I would agree with the "feature" camp. Users should be able to create > an empty $(pkgdatadir) - suppose that empty directory is populated by > other methods. They should also be able to not create $(pkgdatadir) as > well as a non-empty $(pkgdatadir).
I like the idea of installing empty directories by default, as a feature, but can also see the arguments for omitting a directory. What about a compromise: By default, we create the empty directory: pkgdata_DATA = But with the noinst flag, a directory can be specifically marked for no creation unless it later has contents: noinst_pkgdata_DATA = For the sake of conditional concatenation, we should either allow: noinst_pkgdata_DATA = if COND pkgdata_DATA += file endif or else make the documentation explicit that to conditionally install contents to a directory, but to omit the directory if no contents are present, then you must do: noinst_pkgdata_DATA = pkgdata_DATA = if COND pkgdata_DATA += file endif Either way, the semantics are that if there are contents in a directory, then the directory is created; if the conditions make it so there are no contents in a directory, then the directory is created _unless_ the noinst_ prefix also appeared with that directory. -- Eric Blake ebl...@redhat.com +1-919-301-3266 Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org
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