> > - Packages define a configure option for the /etc directory, e.g.
> > --enable-etcdir=/etc
> > through Autoconf [3].
> Yes, and what we are proposing is that this option (by a different name)
> will be included in Autoconf so that developers don't have to add it
> manually.
The proposed patch [1] does more than that. Especially the documentation
change suggests that it's OK for the "make install" step to install files
in both /usr/etc and /etc. As you clarified above, this is not what is
desired.
That would break a bunch of stuff, notably any GNU system where /usr
and / are the same.
The configure --help output and/or the documentation should state that
- "make install" will install into SYSCONFDIR,
- but the package will read from ETCDIR and then from SYSCONFDIR.
It should absolutley not state that. It is on purpose that `make
install' does not trash sysconfdir; if you install a program you do
not want your configuration files that you have modified to be
overwritten.
I'm against this change (--admindir.. ), it is making a problem where
there is none. For configuration files that are "global" (which this
basically is); one should not use /usr/etc (which might not exist, or
point to /etc). What should be used is /usr/share/PACKAGE or similar.
This is already configurable by ./configure, so there is no reason to
add switch that will not be used by anyone other than systemd.
