Subject: Re: Why are packages ever installed to /usr/X11R6?
To: Rob Windsor <windsor@warthog.com>
From: Robert Elz <kre@munnari.OZ.AU>
List: tech-pkg
Date: 01/17/2003 23:14:04
    Date:        Fri, 17 Jan 2003 09:30:33 -0600
    From:        Rob Windsor <windsor@warthog.com>
    Message-ID:  <200301171530.h0HFUY803665@warthog.com>

  | Relatively easy to have packages use ${PKGROOT}/lib/X11/app-defaults,
  | instead.

Is it?   Isn't most of that stuff done via regular Xlib calls?   And
Xlib knows nothing about ${PKGROOT} (or ${LOCALBASE} or similar).

  | Asking someone to put ${PKGROOT}/lib/X11/app-defaults in their
  | ${XAPPLRESDIR} (and ${XFILESEARCHPATH} for Solaris) is barely worse

It is much worse.   Most people understand PATH and can appreciate what
it is for,   Just looking at the XAPPLRESDIR name is enough to send those
same people off the edge...

  | than asking them to put ${PKGROOT}/bin in their ${PATH}.

Which no-one needs to do anyway.   Just typing /usr/pkg/bin/bash
works just fine.   But XAPPLRESDIR isn't like that.

The union mount of app-defaults is (IMNSHO) easily the best way to
handle this, and with "mount -o hidden" it remains essentially invisible
to the masses, and everything just plain works.

kre