[bug#47401] [PATCH] doc: Mention value /etc to sysconfdir option.

[zimoun <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com>]

* doc/contributing.texi (Building from Git): Mention value /etc to sysconfdir
option.
---

Hi,

From a discussion [1] about a reproducibility issue,

        As discussed on IRC, ‘guix pull’ preserves the settings of the host
        Guix.  So if your initial ‘guix’ has %sysconfdir set to
        /usr/local/etc, ‘guix pull’ will preserve that.

        It turns out that, as is always the case with GNU Standards compliant
        configure script, the default value for --prefix is /usr/local, and
        the default for --sysconfdir is $prefix/etc.

        Mostly likely, what happened is that at some point you built Guix from
        source using the default prefix and sysconfdir, and then you ran ‘guix
        pull’ from that Guix.

I discovered that the option ’sysconfdir’ at ./configure time is set by
default to /usr/local/etc conforming the GNU Coding standards.  And Guix
expect instead /etc.  As 'localstadir', it is unconventional.

The manual does not mention this subtility.  This patch adds a tiny sentence
to avoid the trap for the attentive reader.

1: <https://yhetil.org/guix/877dnqe3to.fsf@gnu.org>


Thanks,
simon

 doc/contributing.texi | 8 ++++++--
 doc/guix.texi         | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/contributing.texi b/doc/contributing.texi
index 58c4dafb9b..53840d81cc 100644
--- a/doc/contributing.texi
+++ b/doc/contributing.texi
@@ -228,8 +228,12 @@ necessary to support this, including @env{PATH} and @env{GUILE_LOAD_PATH}.
 Note that @command{./pre-inst-env guix pull} does @emph{not} upgrade the
 local source tree; it simply updates the @file{~/.config/guix/current}
 symlink (@pxref{Invoking guix pull}).  Run @command{git pull} instead if
-you want to upgrade your local source tree.
-
+you want to upgrade your local source tree.  Moreover, note also that
+@command{guix pull} preserves the settings of the host Guix.  For
+instance, regular Guix passes @code{--sysconfdir=/etc/}, whereas the GNU
+Coding Standards sets by default @var{prefix} to @file{/usr/local} and
+@var{sysconfdir} to @file{$prefix/etc} (@pxref{Directory Variables,,,
+standards, GNU Coding Standards}).
 
 @node The Perfect Setup
 @section The Perfect Setup
diff --git a/doc/guix.texi b/doc/guix.texi
index c23d044ff5..3f2cf4d6e1 100644
--- a/doc/guix.texi
+++ b/doc/guix.texi
@@ -69,8 +69,8 @@ Copyright @copyright{} 2019 Jakob L. Kreuze@*
 Copyright @copyright{} 2019 Kyle Andrews@*
 Copyright @copyright{} 2019 Alex Griffin@*
 Copyright @copyright{} 2019, 2020 Guillaume Le Vaillant@*
+Copyright @copyright{} 2019, 2020, 2021 Simon Tournier@*
 Copyright @copyright{} 2020 Leo Prikler@*
-Copyright @copyright{} 2019, 2020 Simon Tournier@*
 Copyright @copyright{} 2020 Wiktor Żelazny@*
 Copyright @copyright{} 2020 Damien Cassou@*
 Copyright @copyright{} 2020 Jakub Kądziołka@*

base-commit: 6e7ba45357078b31a369b23f8a9f38302dfcbb10
-- 
2.29.2