Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 0/3] add --confdir option to configure

[Anthony Liguori <anthony@codemonkey.ws>]

On 03/19/2012 10:43 AM, Eduardo Habkost wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 10:34:06AM -0500, Anthony Liguori wrote:
>> On 03/19/2012 10:31 AM, Eduardo Habkost wrote:
>>> On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 10:14:54AM -0500, Anthony Liguori wrote:
>>>> On 03/19/2012 09:47 AM, Eduardo Habkost wrote:
>>>>> This series change the Makefile to use $(confdir) instead of
>>>>> $(sysconfdir)/qemu, and allows the full config path configurable instead of
>>>>> forcing the use of $(sysconfdir)/qemu.
>>>>
>>>> What's the use case here?  Is this to allow $(sysconfdir)/qemu-kvm?
>>>
>>> Yes. On RHEL we usually package qemu-kvm only, but we try to avoid
>>> conflicts in case other flavors of qemu be provided by third-parties
>>> (read: EPEL).
>>>
>>>>
>>>> I'd rather we use a PACKAGE_NAME define to do that and have qemu-kvm
>>>> change PACKAGE_NAME.
>>>
>>> I tried to mimic --mandir, --datadir, --docdir, and all other options
>>> that expect full paths instead of trying to building one itself.
>>>
>>> A --package-name option could be provided to make it easier to override
>>> all the defaults at the same time, but I don't see why not include an
>>> option to define the full path for confdir, just like we allow for
>>> datadir, docdir, and mandir.
>>
>> No, I'm not suggesting --package-name, I'm suggesting that qemu-kvm
>> would carry a patch to configure that changed a fixed PACKAGE_NAME
>> define.
>
> Are you really suggesting that forcing downstream to carry a patch is
> better than having a configure option?

To change the package name?  Absolutely!

> If you suggest making it configurable using a variable on the 'make'
> command-line it would be OK, but I kind of hoped that no modern software
> project would ever require packagers to use configure-by-sed methods to
> set build parameters.

Changing the package name is a Big Deal.  It's not that we should provide a 
friendly interface for.

If you're already a downstream, I don't see the problem carrying a one liner for 
something this significant.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori