Questions about "make install"

[Matt Mackall]

On Wed, 2010-08-11 at 12:58 -0400, Mike Meyer wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:50:28 +0200
> Paul Boddie <paul.boddie at biotek.uio.no> wrote:
> 
> > Mike Meyer wrote:
> > > 2) Why specify --prefix for install? most of the time users are
> > >    installing as root, leaving it off will do the right thing, whereas
> > >    specifying it requires the user to do so on every system where
> > >    python isn't in the default place (I believe that's "most of them"
> > >    since the popular Linux distros put python in /usr/local).
> > 
> > Debian, Ubuntu and Red Hat don't put python in /usr/local. Or do you 
> > mean that users of those distributions frequently choose to install 
> > their own versions manually into /usr/local?
> 
> No, I said it backwards. I meant to say "... *don't* put python in
> /usr/local).", which is where a bare "make install" in the current hg
> distro will put things.

Chapter and verse:

http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#USRLOCALLOCALHIERARCHY

The important distinction here is "built by hand" vs "installed/managed
by distro packaging system". Sticking Mercurial where Python got put by
the distro is wrong as it interferes with the distro's ability to manage
packages.

-- 
Mathematics is the supreme nostalgia of our time.