Re: Bootstrap deleted DOC-nnn file

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Richard Stallman writes:
 >     "make install" (to someplace other than where I put my "system"
 >     emacs) is my friend here.
 > 
 > That is sketchy.  What exactly are you saying I should do?

I'm not saying you *should* do it; it's a workflow change with costs
only you can assess.

In my case I keep a "good build" (often a release) in
/usr/local/bin/xemacs, and several configurations by NAME in
/usr/local/src/XEmacs/+NAME/src/xemacs (ie the source tree).  Since I
do those builds irregularly I usually have a series of binaries lying
around, and for functions that aren't related to a particular build,
that's often enough to check that it's a recent bug.  That allows me
to restrict bisection.  If not I go directly to bisection.

If I wanted to completely avoid bisection, I would build my XEmacs
with "configure --without-prefix[1] ...", then[2]

    make install prefix=/usr/local/save/`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`

I don't know if Emacs supports all the features needed, but I suspect
Emacs *does* support them since the GNUStep port provides a
"relocatable installation" like --without-prefix.  You would get the
same effect with "configure --prefix=/usr/local/`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`"
and then just "make install" (at the expense of needing to reconfigure
and rebuild if you want to install to an "always good" location the
way I use /usr/local).  (N.B. Use of a time stamp happens to be
well-fitted to your requirements, but it's not designed that way.  I
do this with build logs anyway, so it was the natural thing to do
here.)

There was also a program called "GNU stow" which provided support for
doing this kind of thing (more aimed at supporting multiple
architectures served from an single NFS server).  I never used it but
a couple of people who adminned such systems recommended it highly (in
1998...).


Footnotes: 
[1]  This option makes XEmacs assume an installation layout relative
to the executable, and the prefix is nowhere compiled in to the binary
except in the `describe-installation' string.

[2]  Adjust to taste; I only have one application I would do this for,
so a timestamp is all I need.