Re: [Groff] Re: grap-1.36 clip and logscale patch

[Michail Vidiassov]

Dear Ted,

On Sat, 11 Mar 2006, Ted Faber wrote:

> > one more wish:
> >
> > Add DESTDIR to install and uninstall targets
> >  to support staged installations.
> I'm not entirely sure what you want here.  The deinstall target removes
> exactly what the install target put there, and you can tune them both
> using --prefix --with-doc-dir, etc.
>
> What do you have in mind for what DESTDIR does?  Sorry to be dense.

prefix affects not only where files are installed, but
also how things are configured (filenames hardcoded or in config files,
man references).

DESTDIR is a way to install into temporary location, make 
tarball, or package, or file list of that install and only then
do the real install to where prefix pointed. That is called staged 
install.

This is a discussion in which a dense author was persuaded by his users
to add DESTDIR support

http://www.apsis.ch/pound/pound_list/archive/2006/2006-02/1139396110000

The claim of the attackers was: 
So DESTDIR is both e best practice, a common practice, and a convention.

And the author finaly gave up:

OK, if you guys feel so strongly about it, it will be added to the next
release...

The following authoritative sources were mentioned in that thread:

GNU Coding Standards
http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Command-Variables.html

Optionally, you may prepend the value of DESTDIR to the target filename. 
Doing this allows the installer to create a snapshot of the installation 
to be copied onto the real target filesystem later.

Automake manual
http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/manual/html_node/Install.html

Staged installs

Automake generates support for the DESTDIR variable in all install rules. 
DESTDIR is used during the make install step to relocate install objects 
into a staging area. Each object and path is prefixed with the value of 
DESTDIR before being copied into the install area. Here is an example of 
typical DESTDIR usage:

     make DESTDIR=/tmp/staging install

This places install objects in a directory tree built under /tmp/staging. 
If /gnu/bin/foo and /gnu/share/aclocal/foo.m4 are to be installed, the 
above command would install /tmp/staging/gnu/bin/foo and 
/tmp/staging/gnu/share/aclocal/foo.m4.

This feature is commonly used to build install images and packages. For 
more information, see Makefile Conventions.

Support for DESTDIR is implemented by coding it directly into the install 
rules. If your Makefile.am uses a local install rule (e.g., 
install-exec-local) or an install hook, then you must write that code to 
respect DESTDIR.

                Sincerely, Michail