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From: ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic =?utf-8?Q?Court=C3=A8s?=)
Subject: Re: Removing the need for ./configure --localstatedir=/var ?
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2017 23:10:08 +0200
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References: <87bmmm30iq.fsf@dustycloud.org>
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In-Reply-To: <87bmmm30iq.fsf@dustycloud.org> (Christopher Allan Webber's
	message of "Thu, 07 Sep 2017 12:02:43 -0500")
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To: Christopher Allan Webber <cwebber@dustycloud.org>
Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org

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=3D/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=E2=80=99s also the question of =E2=80=9Cmake dist=E2=80=9D, which sho=
uld still DTRT.

We could have $prefix default to /=E2=80=A6 but that=E2=80=99s not quite wh=
at 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=E2=80=99s weird how a simple question like this can be seemingly this co=
mplex
to address.  :-)

Ludo=E2=80=99.