The PREFIX specified at build time should also affect the share directory -
it shouldn't try to use /usr/share here.
- Actually, the PREFIX, no matter where you specify it, is only
- intended to control where files are _installed_, not where they're
- looked for at runtime.
+> Actually, the PREFIX, no matter where you specify it, is only
+> intended to control where files are _installed_, not where they're
+> looked for at runtime.
- There's a good reason not to make PREFIX be used to actually
- change the program's behavior: Most packaging systems use PREFIX
- when building the package, to make it install into a temporary
- directory which gets packaged up.
+> There's a good reason not to make PREFIX be used to actually
+> change the program's behavior: Most packaging systems use PREFIX
+> when building the package, to make it install into a temporary
+> directory which gets packaged up.
- It would probably be nice if ikiwiki offered a separate build-time
- setting to control where it looked for its data files, though it already
- offers a way to do it at runtime (--underlaydir and --templatedir).
+This is not the case. That is the difference between PREFIX and DESTDIR.
- --[[Joey]]
+DESTDIR does what you describe; it causes the files to be installed into some
+directory you specify, which may not be the same place you'd eventually
+run it from.
+
+PREFIX means build the software to run under the location given. Normally it
+will also affect the location files are copied to, so that 'make install'
+installs a working system.
+
+At least, that's the way I've always understood it; the MakeMaker documentation
+isn't entirely clear (perhaps because ordinary Perl modules do not need to be
+configured at build time depending on the installation directory). It does mention
+that DESTDIR is the thing used by packaging tools.
+
+> Thanks for clarifying that. [[bugs/done]] --[[Joey]]