Re: Removing the need for ./configure --localstatedir=/var ?

[ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic Courtès)]

Christopher Allan Webber <cwebber@dustycloud.org> skribis:

> Every now and then I rebuild Guix and hit the problem where I run
> ./configure and then I am reminded that I need to instead do:
>
>   ./configure --localstatedir=/var
>
> IIRC this is because of GNU standards about default paths and pretty
> much no other reason that we don't default to /var.  But I think Guix is
> a special case.
>
> Should we ask maybe for an exception?

No need to ask.  :-)

> There's no reason for users to bump into this.  It's annoying even for
> me, and at least I know (or think I do) why.

I think it would be surprising to users who install from source if
localstatedir is not under $prefix by default (someone who wants to
install to /opt/foo would be surprised to find out that some files go to
/var instead of /opt/foo/var.)

There’s also the question of “make dist”, which should still DTRT.

We could have $prefix default to /… but that’s not quite what one might
expect either.

I think the current situation is a good middle ground, even though I can
also sympathize with your frustration.

Thoughts?

It’s weird how a simple question like this can be seemingly this complex
to address.  :-)

Ludo’.