Re: [Groff] new groff directory structure

[Werner LEMBERG]

> If the goal is to eventually have separate versions of groff all on
> the same system (e.g. 1.16.1 and 1.17.1) running simultaneously and
> sharing a directory tree, then there are still the problems that the
> associated binaries (e.g. troff, pic, eqn, refer, etc.) don't have
> version numbers and hence must be segregated somehow else.  It was
> *this* sort of issue that puzzled me.  I don't use emacs, but my
> understanding is that at least emacs and Xemacs have different
> binary names so both can be installed simultaneously in
> /usr/local/bin.

Indeed.  I'm thinking about this -- the solution is quite easy; just
name the binaries, say, `groff-1.16.1' and add a hard link to
`groff'.  Emacs even goes a step further: It installs binaries which
are called by Emacs only into something like

  /usr/local/libexec/emacs/20.6/i686-pc-linux-gnu

Since many people use the groff programs in a pipe, this option (as
nice it is) can't be used.

Maybe groff (the program) shall check how it is called.  If arg[0] is,
say, groff-1.16.1, it takes the `-1.16.1' postfix and appends it to
all programs it is calling, i.e., pic-1.16.1, grotty-1.16.1, etc.

Has somebody a more elegant solution to this problem?


    Werner