[Slackbuilds-users] RFC: more variables

[klaatu at member.fsf.org]

I do have a specific use-case in mind, as you might expect. In the vfx
industry that I work in, my clients modify the path of components to fit
in with whatever system layout they've devised. I don't know if this is
common or if it's local, but it's the norm where I am. Specifically,
some packages only get installed for a specific show, and must be
unavailable to some other show (to keep artists from accidentally using
an unsupported tool on their show, because when we archive shows, the
full environment of what built that show also must be accurately
recorded, just in case someone wants to make a sequel 7 years later and
needs the old show assets to work).

So sometimes I'm installing several packages for someone and must modify where the docs/man/info end up.

What I do now is sed 's_usr/doc_/blah/usr/doc_g' (or whatever) once for
docs, once for man, and possibly once for info pages. I do this on all
packages about to be installed, and then I take note of what failed, and
go in and manually tweak the build scripts and re-build the ones that
didn't do it right. Not a big deal, but it would be "cleaner" to make the
values a variable in the first place so that they can be over-ridden as
needed.

I also imagine it could be useful for SSD users. Personally, at home, I
have /usr/doc on a non-SSD partition, but what if you didn't lay your
system out like that and suddenly want to start using /usr/local/doc for
all documentation to save wear and tear on your SSD drive? I don't know
how common that is either, but maybe it's something that would be
helpful to some users. I imagine some admins out there still
differentiate between /usr and /usr/local for site-specific installs?

I also realise that this is probably exactly how the concept of special
build macros gets started, so if everyone hates this idea because it
seems like it's starting down the path of confusing, over-abstracted
build scripts, I'm happy to continue brute-forcing my build changes when
needed.

-klaatu





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klaatu at sdf.lonestar.org
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