[OpenAFS-devel] pinstall versus install-sh

[Russ Allbery]

Jim Rees <rees@umich.edu> writes:

> Why would we have to re-write Makefiles?  For most of them, isn't it
> just a matter of changing $INSTALL in src/config/Makefile.config?

If /usr/local/bin doesn't exist,

    install foo /usr/local/bin

installs foo as the file /usr/local/bin.

    pinstall foo /usr/local/bin

creates the directory /usr/local/bin and puts foo in it.  I'd want to
change all of the Makefiles to explicitly list the installation target to
avoid any ambiguity.

> One problem with install-sh is that it does not preserve mtime.  Doesn't
> pinstall preserve mtime and avoid the copy if the file didn't change?
> Without this feature you would rebuild the world much more often.

make should do this, not your install program.

That being said, if it's the path of least resistance, I can hack
install-sh to support -p and make Autoconf require that the system install
program support -p in order to use it.

But I'd rather get make to solve this problem.  It's better at it.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>