[Portland-bugs] [Bug 14290] New: xdg-utils should provide a --destdir option

[bugzilla-daemon at freedesktop.org]

http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14290

           Summary: xdg-utils should provide a --destdir option
           Product: Portland
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Other
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: medium
         Component: xdg-utils
        AssignedTo: portland-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
        ReportedBy: flameeyes at gmail.com


Most distributors, when preparing a binary package from a source one, don't
install directly on the live filesystem, as that would make it difficult to
track down which files belong to who, and they instead use a DESTDIR variable
(usually passed to the make install phase) to install in a different tree.

Right now packages using xdg-utils to install data only try to write on the
live filesystem, which they might not be able to write to (either through
permissions, or through the use of sandbox software).

Having a --destdir option, that still searches the directories on the live
filesystem, but writes in a different tree would be a good deal for most
distributions. It would still require modifying the packages' build system to
add the option, but then it would be a one-time upstreamable change.

Just remember that DESTDIR is allowed to be empty, so --destdir '' should still
be allowed.

Also, as it should check for presence of directories on live filesystem (to see
what the system already is using), it would be a good idea to _create_ the
target directories if they don't exist, as that's likely what a distributor
would want.


-- 
Configure bugmail: http://bugs.freedesktop.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=email
------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
You are the assignee for the bug.