Re: GNU configure magic prepending instead of replacing --mandir?

[Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost>]

Hauke Fath <hf%spg.tu-darmstadt.de@localhost> writes:

> On 6/29/23 15:13, Greg Troxel wrote:
>> My best guess is that the plan is that arguments automatically specified
>> would not also be specified manually.
>
> Sounds good, but is there a comprehensive list of "arguments
> automatically specified"? And should a package not be able to override
> that when it needs to, without having to grovel through the mk file
> tree?

The list is in mk/configure/gnu-configure.mk.  Documentation
contributions are generally welcome, but this is an unusual problem.

> I guess warning about configure options set in a package Makefile that
> get overridden unconditionally by pkgsrc mechanics could be a pkglint
> feature.

It could.  Perhaps merely having mentioned it will cause that to
materialize!

>> Passing $prefix/man seems very straightforward.  I don't understand the
>> problem you had.  It sounds like the package might be buggy, in which
>> case the usual approach is to patch it, or at least report this
>> upstream.
>
> There were two: The package installing man pages in $PREFIX/$mandir
> directly, not the man1 subdir (that could be patched). And the

It should be reported upstream, and the bug report URL left in a
comment.  Without upstream fixing things, more cruft accumulates in
pkgsrc which meakes future package updates harder.

> Solarish build picking up an incorrect value for $mandir, and running
> with that, causing a PLIST issue.

Sounds like that should be reported also, if the xemacs build system is
deciding to pick what it thinks is right instead of what was passed to
--mandir.

Really, the default --mandir arg should be entirely sufficient, for
non-buggy upstreams, or at least that's my current belief.