Thanks. Thinking about this some more, being able to change the prefix with minimal rebuilding is a feature that goes along with my proposal.
Examples: 1. I installed temporarily into /usr/local/gcc-4.7.0/ until we decide that we are ready to cut over. Then I will install into /usr/local/. It would be nice to be able to edit a file, say “config-prefix”, then do a make install, and not have to wait hours. 2. After doing the proposed “make binary-distribution”, someone who receives the resulting pruned tree could edit the config-prefix file and do a make install into their desired destination. On Tue 2012-04-10, at 02:27 AM, [email protected] (Alfred M. Szmidt) wrote: >> [[email protected] - Mon Apr 09 18:50:57 2012]: >> >> http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Standard-Targets.html >> >> Where would I communicate the request that the above standard should >> include a “binary-distribution" target that deletes everything except >> files necessary for a “build install”. >> >> For example, I would build gcc on one server, then do a “make >> binary-distribution”, then rsync it to other servers, where I can >> to a make install. >> >> To go along with this, there should be a make target that builds >> a runtime-requirements file, containing an inventory of >> everything that will be required for the package to run, and >> there should be a program that compares the information in >> runtime-requirements with the current system to diagnose any >> problems that might interfere with an install. > > You can easily do this using `make install DESTDIR=...' where DESTDIR > specifies a temporary directory. E.g. > > ./configure --prefix=/usr/local > make install DESTDIR=/tmp/FOO > tar -C /tmp/FOO -cvf /tmp/FOO.tar . > > Now you can easily install something.tar on your systems in > /usr/local; or even rsync /tmp/FOO to your targets. > >
