Creating (or not) the directories in --locallisppath

Creating (or not) the directories in --locallisppath

[Juanma Barranquero]

In the thread for bug#14576 there was a brief discussion about an
issue not specific to Windows, i.e., whether directories passed to
configure --locallisppath=XXXX should be created by the Emacs build
process.

Currently they are created in the install-arch-indeep rule, which
tellingly has this comment:

## I'm not sure creating locallisppath here serves any useful purpose.
## If it has the default value, then the later write_subdir commands
## will ensure all these components exist.
## This will only do something if locallisppath has a non-standard value.
## Is it really Emacs's job to create those directories?
## Should we also be ensuring they contain subdirs.el files?
## It would be easy to do, just use write_subdir.

IMHO, Emacs should not create these dirs, as if the user needs passing
locallispath, it is likely it points outside the Emacs installation
tree and doesn't seem something Emacs should worry about (or dare to
touch). Also, it seems that it wouldn't play well with staged installs
via DESTDIR...

Comments?

   J

Re: Creating (or not) the directories in --locallisppath

[Stefan Monnier]

> IMHO, Emacs should not create these dirs, as if the user needs passing
> locallispath, it is likely it points outside the Emacs installation
> tree and doesn't seem something Emacs should worry about (or dare to
> touch). Also, it seems that it wouldn't play well with staged installs
> via DESTDIR...

I'd tend to agree,


        Stefan

Re: Creating (or not) the directories in --locallisppath

[Juanma Barranquero]

On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 10:15 PM, Stefan Monnier
<monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> wrote:

> I'd tend to agree,


2013-06-20  Juanma Barranquero  <lekktu@gmail.com>

        * Makefile.in (install-arch-indep): Do not create the dirs
        in locallisppath; they are the user's responsibility.



=== modified file 'Makefile.in'
--- Makefile.in 2013-06-07 08:08:29 +0000
+++ Makefile.in 2013-06-20 23:14:29 +0000
@@ -548,13 +548,9 @@
 ## Note that the Makefiles in the etc directory are potentially useful
 ## in an installed Emacs, so should not be excluded.

-## I'm not sure creating locallisppath here serves any useful purpose.
-## If it has the default value, then the later write_subdir commands
-## will ensure all these components exist.
-## This will only do something if locallisppath has a non-standard value.
-## Is it really Emacs's job to create those directories?
-## Should we also be ensuring they contain subdirs.el files?
-## It would be easy to do, just use write_subdir.
+## We used to create locallisppath, but if it points to non-standard
+## locations, is not really Emacs's job to create these directories,
+## so it is no longer done.

 ## Note that we use tar instead of plain old cp -R/-r because the latter
 ## is apparently not portable (even in 2012!).
@@ -564,12 +560,6 @@
 ## See also these comments from 2004 about cp -r working fine:
 ## http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/autoconf-patches/2004-11/msg00005.html
 install-arch-indep: lisp leim install-info install-man
${INSTALL_ARCH_INDEP_EXTRA}
- umask 022 ; \
- locallisppath='${locallisppath}'; \
- IFS=:; \
- for d in $$locallisppath; do \
-  ${MKDIR_P} "$(DESTDIR)$$d"; \
- done
  -set ${COPYDESTS} ; \
  unset CDPATH; \
  $(set_installuser); \

Re: Creating (or not) the directories in --locallisppath

[Juanma Barranquero]

If no one objects, then, I will shortly install the following patch.


2013-06-25  Juanma Barranquero  <lekktu@gmail.com>

        * Makefile.in (install-arch-indep): Do not create directories passed
        with --enable-locallisppath.


2013-06-25  Juanma Barranquero  <lekktu@gmail.com>

        * NEWS: Mention policy change with respect to locallisppath dirs.



=== modified file 'Makefile.in'
--- Makefile.in 2013-06-07 08:08:29 +0000
+++ Makefile.in 2013-06-25 09:26:31 +0000
@@ -548,13 +548,9 @@
 ## Note that the Makefiles in the etc directory are potentially useful
 ## in an installed Emacs, so should not be excluded.

-## I'm not sure creating locallisppath here serves any useful purpose.
-## If it has the default value, then the later write_subdir commands
-## will ensure all these components exist.
-## This will only do something if locallisppath has a non-standard value.
-## Is it really Emacs's job to create those directories?
-## Should we also be ensuring they contain subdirs.el files?
-## It would be easy to do, just use write_subdir.
+## We used to create locallisppath, but if it points to non-standard
+## locations, is not really Emacs's job to create these directories,
+## so it is no longer done.

 ## Note that we use tar instead of plain old cp -R/-r because the latter
 ## is apparently not portable (even in 2012!).
@@ -564,12 +560,6 @@
 ## See also these comments from 2004 about cp -r working fine:
 ## http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/autoconf-patches/2004-11/msg00005.html
 install-arch-indep: lisp leim install-info install-man
${INSTALL_ARCH_INDEP_EXTRA}
- umask 022 ; \
- locallisppath='${locallisppath}'; \
- IFS=:; \
- for d in $$locallisppath; do \
-  ${MKDIR_P} "$(DESTDIR)$$d"; \
- done
  -set ${COPYDESTS} ; \
  unset CDPATH; \
  $(set_installuser); \

=== modified file 'etc/NEWS'
--- etc/NEWS 2013-06-23 19:24:27 +0000
+++ etc/NEWS 2013-06-25 09:36:11 +0000
@@ -57,6 +57,9 @@
 directories and will find the files in there automatically; there's no
 need to set any variables due to this change.)

+** Directories passed to configure option `--enable-locallisppath' are
+no longer created during installation.
+

 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.4