Xen devel - Dec 2012 - [PATCH RFC] tools: install under /usr/local by default.

This is the defacto (or FHS mandated?) standard location for software
built from source, in order to avoid clashing with packaged software
which is installed under /usr/bin etc.

I think there is benefit in having Xen''s install behave more like the
majority of other OSS software out there.

The major downside here is in the transition from 4.2 to 4.3 where
people who have built from source will innevitably discover breakage
because 4.3 no longer overwrites stuff in /usr like it used to so they
pickup old stale bits from /usr instead of new stuff from /usr/local.

Packages will use ./configure --prefix=/usr or whatever helper macro
their package manager gives them. I have confirmed that doing this
results in the same list of installed files as before this patch was
applied.

Note that this does not currently affect docs or stubdoms at the
moment, so they still end up under /usr. There are proposals to use
configure here too at which point I would propose a similar patch and
these would also move as expected (depending on the sequencing I may
end folding that into this patch)

The hypervisor remains in /boot/ and there is no intention to move it.

Signed-off-by: Ian Campbell <ian.campbell@citrix.com>
---
 tools/configure    |    2 --
 tools/configure.ac |    1 -
 2 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/configure b/tools/configure
index f9d1925..463f79d 100755
--- a/tools/configure
+++ b/tools/configure
@@ -558,7 +558,6 @@
PACKAGE_BUGREPORT=''xen-devel@lists.xen.org''
 PACKAGE_URL=''http://www.xen.org/''
 
 ac_unique_file="libxl/libxl.c"
-ac_default_prefix=/usr
 # Factoring default headers for most tests.
 ac_includes_default="\
 #include <stdio.h>
@@ -2145,7 +2144,6 @@ ac_config_files="$ac_config_files
../config/Tools.mk"
 
 ac_config_headers="$ac_config_headers config.h"
 
-
 ac_aux_dir for ac_dir in . "$srcdir"/.; do
   if test -f "$ac_dir/install-sh"; then
diff --git a/tools/configure.ac b/tools/configure.ac
index 586313d..ccb2ae4 100644
--- a/tools/configure.ac
+++ b/tools/configure.ac
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ AC_INIT([Xen Hypervisor], m4_esyscmd([../version.sh
../xen/Makefile]),
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([libxl/libxl.c])
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([../config/Tools.mk])
 AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
-AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT([/usr])
 AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([.])
 
 # Check if CFLAGS, LDFLAGS, LIBS, CPPFLAGS or CPP is set and print a warning
-- 
1.7.2.5

On Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 5:41 PM, Ian Campbell
<ian.campbell@citrix.com>wrote:
> This is the defacto (or FHS mandated?) standard location for software
> built from source, in order to avoid clashing with packaged software
> which is installed under /usr/bin etc.
>
So if someone just does "./configure && make deb", the .deb
will install
stuff in /usr/local.  Is that what we want?

 -George


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On Wed, 2012-12-05 at 10:57 +0000, George Dunlap wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 5:41 PM, Ian Campbell
<ian.campbell@citrix.com>
> wrote:
>         This is the defacto (or FHS mandated?) standard location for
>         software
>         built from source, in order to avoid clashing with packaged
>         software
>         which is installed under /usr/bin etc.
> 
> So if someone just does "./configure && make deb", the
.deb will
> install stuff in /usr/local.  Is that what we want?
Given that the purpose of the deb target is not to produce a policy
compliant deb but simply to be a thing which can be uninstalled somewhat
easily I think it is acceptable if a little unusual.

I see the .deb as as special case of the "local admin building from
source" case rather than a special case of the "Debian package"
case.

Ian.

On Tue, 2012-12-04 at 17:41 +0000, Ian Campbell wrote: 
> This is the defacto (or FHS mandated?) standard location for software
> built from source, in order to avoid clashing with packaged software
> which is installed under /usr/bin etc.
> 
> I think there is benefit in having Xen''s install behave more like
the
> majority of other OSS software out there.
> 
I think that too. Very small knowledge of autotools and related stuff
here, so I don''t think I can provide a "technical ack", but I
definitely
like the idea!
> The major downside here is in the transition from 4.2 to 4.3 where
> people who have built from source will innevitably discover breakage
> because 4.3 no longer overwrites stuff in /usr like it used to so they
> pickup old stale bits from /usr instead of new stuff from /usr/local.
> 
I think this is something that needs to be made clear in release notes,
migration instructions, etc., but, at the same time, I wouldn''t
consider
it a showstopper.

Dario

-- 
<<This happens because I choose it to happen!>> (Raistlin Majere)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dario Faggioli, Ph.D, http://retis.sssup.it/people/faggioli
Senior Software Engineer, Citrix Systems R&D Ltd., Cambridge (UK)




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