>>> If you use $DESTDIR, "make install" in gnu/usr.bin/gcc will put the
>>> new bits in $DESTDIR/usr/bin and they won't get used at all.

>> I don't see why you should necessarily expect that you should be
>> able to do a complete build of -current without installing any of
>> it.  [...]

> I understand why this is being said, but this is like saying all that
> work to support DESTDIR in the source Makefiles is all for naught.

Hardly for naught.  I found it useful just recently, when making a
crash-recovery boot disk.  I mounted the new disk and did a "make
install" in my source tree with DESTDIR pointing to where I'd mounted
the new disk.  Then I installed a kernel and bootblocks, and voila!
instant crash recovery disk.  It seems it doesn't do quite what you
want, well, I agree with you that it would be nice to have what you
want.  But I'm not prepared to call DESTDIR useless beacuse of that.

> Personally I see no reason why you need to install parts of the
> system to make a full system build work.

Because nobody's put the effort into it to fix the places where this
breaks, presumably...which more or less means that so far, nobody has
had simultaneously the desire, the time, and the skill...or at least if
so hasn't sent-pr the results. :-)

					der Mouse

			    mouse@collatz.mcrcim.mcgill.edu