Re: [un]install-*-local/install-*-hook does not honor DESTDIR

[Eugene Crosser]

Stepan Kasal wrote:

> > It seems that as of versions 1.9.2 and 1.9.3 at least, automake does not 
> > set DESTDIR when it executes install-data-local and similar targets. 
> > if you do (as documentation suggests)
> >
> > install-data-local:
> >             $(INSTALL_DATA) $(srcdir)/afile $(DESTDIR)/etc/afile
> >
> > and run "make install DESTDIR=/new/root", all "standard" targets are 
> > installed inside /new/root, but "afile" is installed into real /etc/.
>
>
> I'm not an automake expert, but I cannot imagine how automake could have
> any influence here:
> You wrote the rule to Makefile.am, automake has copied it to Makefile.in,
> so it is in your Makefile.

I suspected that the DESTDIR variable somehow got destroyed before 
recursively running "make install-*-local" but I was wrong.

> What version of make, and on which platform do you use?
> (Or: perhaps you just made a typo in your Makefile.am?)

OK, sorry, I was wrong.
It is another thing that does not work as I expected, not DESTDIR thing. 
 Actually, it happens that only "make distcheck" gets broken, not "make 
install DESTDIR=...".

Because "install-*-local" is a natural place to play with files that are 
*not* located under $prefix (exactly as example in the documentation 
suggests), you may not want to put $prefix-dependant paths there.  On 
the other hand, "make distcheck" configures the package with custom 
$prefix, and installs into that prefix, *not* specifying "DESTDIR".  So, 
if your *-local target deals with files that are not located under 
$prefix, "make distcheck" breaks.

Maybe it would be better if distcheck ./configured the package with 
default prefix, but installed it specilying "DESTDIR=$(distdir)/_inst"?
I don't know if it may break anyting else, though...

Regards
Eugene