Re: standards for info install

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hi Karl,

* Karl Berry wrote on Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 06:00:08PM CET:
> Here is what I've come up with for the install-info example.
> Let me know if problems.
> 
> do-install-info: foo.info
>         $(NORMAL_INSTALL)
> # There may be a newer info file in . than in srcdir.
>         -if test -f foo.info; then d=.; \
>          else d=$(srcdir); fi

Missing `; \' at the end so that $$d is still defined in the
following $(INSTALL_DATA) line.

Why is this command prefixed with a hyphen (causing errors to be
ignored)?  I prefer `make install' to fail if some files cannot be
installed.  BTW, recent Automake releases are much more reliable in
denoting failure of `make install' than earlier ones; the user can
still use -k for ignoring failure.  Sorry for overlooking this in my
previous message.

>         $(INSTALL_DATA) $$d/foo.info \
>           $(DESTDIR)$(infodir)/foo.info

FWIW, I'd quote $(DESTDIR)$(infodir) so that spaces are allowed,
here and below, but I'm not sure requiring this makes sense.
Packages not intending for w32 are unlikely to care.

> # Run install-info only if it exists.
> # Use `if' instead of just prepending `-' to the
> # line so we notice real errors from install-info.
> # Use `$(SHELL) -c' because some shells do not
> # fail gracefully when there is an unknown command.
>         $(POST_INSTALL)
>         if $(SHELL) -c 'install-info --version' \
>            >/dev/null 2>&1; then \
>           install-info --dir-file=$(DESTDIR)$(infodir)/dir \
>                        $(DESTDIR)$(infodir)/foo.info; \
>         else true; fi
> 

Cheers,
Ralf