Re: Scripting for installing a module

[James Crake-Merani <james@jamescm.co.uk>]

On 22/07/02 09:11am, adriano wrote:
> Il giorno ven, 01/07/2022 alle 18.15 +0100, James Crake-Merani ha
> scritto:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I was just wondering what approach people tend to take when writing a
> > script which installs a module onto the load-path. I understand this
> > path might be different on different machines so how do you make sure
> > the module is installed in the right path? Would you use something
> > like a Makefile?
> 
> not only a Makefile
> 
> The whole Autotools chain
> 
> There are 2 options:
> 
> 1) you write the config.am and Makefile.am (or however they're called)
> by hand and you deal with the Autotools directly, by hand
> 
> 2) You use guile-hall and it will wrap the Autotools making the
> experience a bit less frustrating
> 
> 
> 
> BUT
> 
> I wonder: why you want to install your module ?
> 
> You might want to distribute it as a simple handful of source files
> 
> Guile will compile it automagically at need
> 
> If your module has no dependencies, that could be an easy option
> 
> If it _has_ dependencies, then the Autotools might be of help
> 
> Did you think about this ?
> 
> I hate to second guess your question 
> 
> I understand it might be perceived as rude and I'm sorry for that
> 
> I just think these distinctions in use cases are not clear at all, in
> the manual and in general
> 
> So this could be an easy pitfall

Hi,

Don't worry, you didn't come across as rude at all. My use case was simply that I wrote some modules that I wanted to distribute, and I thought that if I'm going to distribute them, I probably ought to put some sort of script in so users can install them as well. The modules in question are just a simple project which tests your conformance to a certain political ideology (which is not sophisticated at all because it was more of a joke between friends that I thought would make a good programming exercise). After seeing Guile Hall recommended by yourself, and Jeremy I thought this might be appropriate. My modules have no dependencies aside from those already part of Guile although I do intend to write another module which will depend on the previous module.

So if I were to take the latter approach of just distributing the source code then I presume users would have to load the file manually, or install it manually unless I'm missing something. In that case, I would've thought using something like Guile Hall would be more appropriate but again I might be missing something.

I have just found the manual pages detailing Guile Hall which I was not originally aware of. After reading them, it does seem to me that Hall would be appropriate for this but of course I would be willing to hear about alternatives to distributing the code.

Thanks for your response.