Re: Introducing PKGGNUDIR

["Jonathan Perkin" <jperkin%joyent.com@localhost>]

* On 2012-11-20 at 17:34 GMT, Tim Larson wrote:

> > 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

'/usr/gnu/bin/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

'/usr/${PKGGNUDIR}bin/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.

That's the idea :)

Regards,

-- 
Jonathan Perkin  -  Joyent, Inc.  -  www.joyent.com