Re: Installing on AIX fails

From: Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com>
Date: Jun 6, 2010, 22:26 UTC
Message-ID: <201006070026.20363.jnareb@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTikbAShMuOvFra8bLT2PmU7s_iUQhr4RY7oD3LLa@mail.gmail.com>

On Sat, 5 Jun 2010, Dario Rodriguez wrote:

Show 20 quoted lines

> On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 8:44 AM, Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Tor Arntsen <tor@spacetec.no> writes:
>>>
>>> Maybe you could get away with just using the script-version of install
>>> which comes with coreutils itself (because it'll need an install tool
>>> to use before 'install' itself is installed..).
>>>
>>> I'm attaching a copy. To use it it should be sufficient to use
>>> INSTALL=path-to/install-sh make install
>>> or something like that.
>>
>> I wonder if it would be better to simply include fallback portable
>> install-sh in git sources.
>>
>> BTW. shouldn't we define and use INSTALL_D in Makefile?
> 
> I think so about the install-sh, but about the Makefiles I wonder if
> it's not better to reuse current INSTALL, maybe if install-sh is used,
> then there is no need for using other 'install' program, excepting the
> case in wich the user sets INSTALL commandline.

Well, if there were install-sh script in git sources, we could uncomment

  #AC_PROG_INSTALL          # needs install-sh or install.sh in sources

line in configure.ac, then ./configure would automatically detect and select 'install' program or script to use. The autoconf documentation (autoconf.info) says:

  This macro screens out various instances of `install' known not to
  work.  It prefers to find a C program rather than a shell script,
  for speed. [...]

  Autoconf comes with a copy of `install-sh' that you can use.  If
  you use `AC_PROG_INSTALL', you must include either `install-sh' or
  `install.sh' in your distribution, or `configure' will produce an
  error message saying it can't find them--even if the system you're
  on has a good `install' program.  This check is a safety measure
  to prevent you from accidentally leaving that file out, which
  would prevent your package from installing on systems that don't
  have a BSD-compatible `install' program.

So I guess we should also prefer install program for speed, even if we do not use ./configure script.

-- 
Jakub Narębski
Poland