Re: Emacs cvs newbie problems

[karl@freefriends.org (Karl Berry)]

    If there happen to be multiple Info directories already, it doesn't
    matter tremendously which on a new file is installed in, 

It doesn't matter from the point of view of info (which is a problem in
itself, as Karl E. points out), but it may matter very much from the
point of view of the sysadmin.

For example, I know of sites that install emacs 21.2 into
/tools/emacs-21.2, completely.  This can ease upgrades, etc.  If
configure went ahead and installed the emacs 21.2 info files into
/usr/local/info, that would defeat the purpose.

    The existence of several Info directories is not a disaster, but it is
    somewhat of a problem.

I disagree.  When several info directories exist, that is usually
exactly what the installer/sysadmin wants to have.  Trying to make
configure outguess the local sysadmin seems quite wrong (not to mention
impossible) to me.

In my view, the simple infodir=$(datarootdir)/info default we have now
is not broken, in any way.  Instead of changing that, I suggest (once
again) that we simply fix the dir merging as we have discussed so that
redundant entries are not included.  That is what gave rise to the
original bug report and all the ensuing discussion -- not the existence
of multiple dir files.