On Mon, 2011-06-13 at 01:46:11 +1100, Winston Smith wrote: > Trying to install postfix in a non-standard location (specifically /usr/local/ > instead of /), I ran into two quirks, the second one more severe than the > first one: > > Firstly, the naming of the config variable names the user is asked when > saying "make install" is highly confusing: First, it is asking for the > install_root, and then it is asking for "destination directories and paths", > providing something like /etc/postfix as default, which suggests that they are > overriding the setting of install_root. When accepting the default or typing > something else, it is later interpreted as relative to install_root EVEN IF it > starts with a / . This is confusing. Maybe the description should be changed > into "Please enter XYZ *relative* to install_root", or the provided values > should be interpreted as absolute paths if prepended with / and as relative > paths (relative to install_root) if not. > > Secondly, the non-standard location is not reflected in main.cf . > E.g. queue_directory still points to /var/spool/postfix/ . This is the value > I typed in, and it was correctly (?) interpreted to be relative to > /usr/local/, so make install created /usr/local/var/spool/postfix/ . Why is > main.cf still pointing to /var/spool/postfix/ ? Is this the wrong target, or > is the prefix /usr/local/ hardcoded in postfix somewhere after make install?
Please see the postfix-install(1) script, specifically the section titled INSTALLATION PARAMETER DESCRIPTION. There, you are cautioned to specify install_root ONLY when creating pre‐built packages for distribution to other systems, and that the parameter setting is not recorded in main.cf. To install certain Postfix files under '/usr/local', pass that prefix to the installation parameter. For more information, carefully review the install script. > After all, moving to autoconf would be a good idea because the generated > Makefiles can handle non-standard installation locations very well, and it > has become some sort of standard for C projects. There are no plans for moving to the beast that is autoconf; that, IMHO, is a good thing. -- Sahil Tandon <[email protected]>
