Re: Trouble with RPM and %{_sysconfdir}.

[Michael Jennings <mej kainx org>]

On Friday, 06 April 2007, at 10:54:09 (-0700),
Frank Cusack wrote:

> 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!)

We love macros because they are variable, not fixed.  To do otherwise
is just silly.  Even if a particular package stupidly hard-codes /etc,
the correct solution is to redefine the macro (or define a new one),
not continue and compound the error by hardcoding more stuff.

RPM is, by and large, set up to work most seamlessly with GNU
autotools-based packages because that's what most FOSS uses.  If /etc
is hard-coded into a spec file, it will most likely get converted to
%{_sysconfdir} because the hard-coding of /etc in the spec file is
more likely to be a mistake of an inexperienced packager than to be an
actual package requirement.

Michael

-- 
Michael Jennings (a.k.a. KainX)  http://www.kainx.org/  <mej kainx org>
n + 1, Inc., http://www.nplus1.net/       Author, Eterm (www.eterm.org)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 "Let me be the one you call.  If you jump, I'll break your fall, lift
  you up, and fly away with you into the night.  If you need to fall
  apart, I can mend a broken heart.  If you need to crash, then crash
  and burn; you're not alone."      -- Savage Garden, "Crash and Burn"