Re: Directory structure changes in Emacs installed on MS-Windows

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: chad <yandros@MIT.EDU>
> Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 01:48:11 -0700
> Cc: "emacs-devel@gnu.org Development" <emacs-devel@gnu.org>
> 
> On 04 Apr 2013, at 23:06, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> 
> > It would be important if it were true, but I don't think it's true.
> > The way epaths.h is generated from epaths.in on Posix platforms leaves
> > the root of the Emacs installation tree (specified via --prefix)
> > hard-coded into the binary, and Emacs (AFAIK) currently doesn't
> > support relocation of the installation tree on Posix systems.  By
> > contrast, on Windows relocation is a matter of routine.  So I cannot
> > use the epaths-force target of the top-level Makefile anyway.
> 
> I don't know if this is helpful to you or not, but the ns port
> (--with-ns) features a relocatable tree.  It seems to be implemented
> in src/nsterm.m, functions ns_etc_directory(), ns_exec_path(), and
> ns_load_path().

Thanks, I know that.  Emacs on Windows is also already relocatable
(otherwise, we would have users outcry on our hands ;-).

What I was trying to say was that _because_ Emacs on Windows is, and
must continue to be, relocatable, the editing of epaths.in by the
configure script is pointless and just gets in the way, because the
result will most likely be thrown away at startup.  I think I will add
an alternative rule for src/epaths.h in the top-level Makefile.in for
the w32 build, and tweak configure.ac accordingly.