RE: Introducing PKGGNUDIR

[Tim Larson <Tim.Larson%proxibid.com@localhost>]

> As many will recall, GNU_PROGRAM_PREFIX was recently cleaned up so that
> 'g' tools were made the default and gnu/bin was introduced for users to
> set in their $PATH if they preferred the GNU tools.
>
> This was good and helped reduce issues with dependencies, however it
> caused a number of issues for our users as many scripts have hardcoded
> paths which do not include gnu/bin but relied on GNU behaviour, and so
> our recent SmartOS dataset has not been well received in some areas.
>
> To help resolve this, I'd like to introduce a new PKGGNUDIR variable
> which defaults to 'gnu/', but can be changed to control where the
> prefix-less files are installed. So, for our environment, we would
> leave the variable unset so that the symlinks are created in e.g. bin/
> rather than gnu/bin/.

Forgive me for coming in late here, but allow me to try to summarize, to make sure I understand the significance...

Before (prefix only):
/usr/bin/gtool

Good, maintained distinction between GNU and non-GNU versions.  Users and scripts using non-"g" name get non-GNU version.

Recently (prefix, and gnu dir with symlink):
/usr/gnu/tool -> /usr/bin/gtool

Better, allowed /usr/gnu to be in user's PATH first.  Scripts still could have problems.

Now (ditto, but configurable):
/usr/${PKGGNUDIR}/tool -> /usr/bin/gtool

Best, allow GNU versions to be the "primary" as well, like when using pkgsrc on Linux.  Users and scripts both get GNU behavior is that's desired.



Tim
--
 

Tim Larson
Software Engineer

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