RE: Gnome/Linux Application Installer

[Gleef <dzol virtual-yellow com>]

On Wed, 23 Dec 1998, Ben 'The Con Man' Kahn wrote:
> 
> 	Yup it does.  (Although not every RPM allows itself to be
> relocated...  I'm not sure why.)  But I'm not clear on how it works.  If I
> relocate say...  myapp-0.0.2.i386.rpm which has files like so:
> 
> /usr/bin/myapp
> /usr/lib/myapp/config
> /usr/lib/myapp/config/myapp.conf
> /usr/lib/myapp/config/myapp.jpg
> /usr/lib/myapp/defaults/myapp.userfile
> /etc/myapp.conf
> 
> 	Then...  Where do these files go when I relocate?

That would be one of those RPMS that can't be relocated.  To do a
relocatable version of this, you would have:

%prefix=/usr

%prefix/bin/myapp
%prefix/lib/myapp/config/myapp.conf
%prefix/lib/myapp/config/myapp.jpg
%prefix/lib/myapp/defaults/myapp.userfile

You would then have a postinstall script to either link or copy myapp.conf
to the /etc directory.  This points out one of the deficiencies of RPM
IMHO.  It really needs independently relocatable base, configuration,
documentation and transient directories.  This would be so you could, for
example, install myapp in /opt/myapp, and have the etc file go into
/etc/opt/myapp/myapp.conf like it's supposed to.

-Gleef