Re: packaging system

[Søren Hauberg]

John W. Eaton wrote:
[snip]
> I think we should be using octave_config_info to get the values of the
> variables
>
>   localapifcnfiledir
>   localapioctfiledir
>   localarchlibdir
>   localfcnfiledir
>   localoctfiledir
>   localstartupfiledir
>   localverarchlibdir
>   localverfcnfiledir
>   localveroctfiledir
>
> to install package components?  These would work for privileged users
> installing files to be shared by all users on a system. 
Makes sense. I would prefer to keep the file installed by package X in a 
subdirectory called X or X-VERSION, since that would make uninstallation 
trivial (we wouldn't have to keep track of which files belongs to which 
packages). Of course this would mean the user would have change her path.

> Maybe we
> should define another set of directories for installing files for a
> particular user?  In that case, maybe installing the entire contents
> of a package in a subdirectory of ~/octave is sufficient?  The name of
> the top-level directory should be configurable, of course.  Perhaps
> refuse to install if the user hasn't set it in some way?  I think this
> is what the perl CPAN module does.
To me, this is very important, since I use Octave at school where I 
don't have the priviliges to install software outside my home directory. 
I don't think a default directory should be used if the user doesn't 
supply one, but I don't really have any good arguments. We can just 
introduce a variable called octave_package_prefix (or simular).
> jwe
/Søren