Subject: Re: What is MANINSTALL good for?
To: NetBSD pkgsrc Discussion <tech-pkg@NetBSD.org>
From: Roland Illig <rillig@NetBSD.org>
List: tech-pkg
Date: 09/30/2007 13:14:10
Johnny C. Lam wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 29, 2007 at 04:32:40PM +0200, Roland Illig wrote:
> 
>>I am wondering what the variable MANINSTALL is, where it comes from and 
>>why we should keep it in pkgsrc.
>>
>>Most programs ignore this variable anyway, and I doubt there are many 
>>pkgsrc users actually knowing that they can set this variable.
>>
>>I'd like to get rid of the extra complexity this variable brings, unless 
>>someone can persuade me that we really need it.
> 
> 
> MANINSTALL is not an "action" variable that the user sets to tell
> pkgsrc to do something.

So why is the variable mentioned in mk/defaults/mk.conf at all? That's 
very confusing.

> MANINSTALL is a "descriptive" variable that
> a package Makefile sets in order to describe to pkgsrc (in particular,
> the plist module) what man and catman pages the package installs.
> Any other use of this variable is wrong.

And how would a package use this variable correctly? Can you give me an 
example? The packages that mention MANINSTALL are:

     comms/kermit
     misc/team         (looks very ancient)
     net/spegla        (looks very ancient)
     pkgtools/pkgdiff  (looks like it uses MANINSTALL correctly)
     pkgtools/pkglint
     pkgtools/shlock
     print/foomatic-filters
     sysutils/user
     x11/xneko

According to your explanation, the way I did it in pkgtools/pkglint must 
be completely wrong.

Roland