Re: Trouble with RPM and %{_sysconfdir}.

[Frank Cusack <fcusack fcusack com>]

On April 6, 2007 9:30:56 AM -0500 Paul Johnson <pauljohn32 gmail com> wrote:
> People write spec files using macros, and then the macros on my system
> do not generate packages that put files in the correct place.  I
> noticed this while packaging ggobi and WindowMaker, and probably in
> other packages as well.  WHen people have a statement in the files
> section like
>
> %config %{_sysconfdir}/%{name}
>
> the config files end up in the wrong place, in /usr/etc/WindowMaker or
> /usr/etc/ggobi.  The authors of those programs claim that the correct
> place ought to be
>
> /etc/WindowMaker  or  /etc/ggobi
>
> and inside their programs, there scripts that have hard coded paths
> that look for files in those places.

Yep.  There are lots of spec files that incorrectly (arguably) use
%_sysconfdir instead of just /etc.  I'm sure someone just went through
and said "hey change all the /etc's to %_sysconfdir's just for the heck
of it! because we loves macros!)

> Until now, I've just had the habit of editing the spec file to cut out
> the usage of %{_sysconfdir}, replacing it with /etc.

Even though my %_sysconfdir *is* /etc, I do this as well, for packages
where the defined location is actually /etc.

>  But it causes me
> to wonder why I'm the only one apparently having this problem,

Your build system is misconfigured, as others have noted.

-frank