Re: [ADMIN] Problem with compilation 7.3.4

Tom Lane writes:

> > There is no info documentation, so you don't need this option.
>
> Someone was complaining about this just recently. We don't need the
> option and don't have it implemented, but configure --help advertises
> it anyway (and fails to advertise the --docdir option that we do have).
> Can that be fixed?

In principle yes, but it's very unpractical.

The set of installation directory names and corresponding options in
Autoconf is fixed and cannot be changed. This is in some cases annoying
and very frequently discussed on the Autoconf list, but it is in principle
a good thing. Else, people would invent all kinds of options and there
would be absolutely no consistency between different packages. Also,
automatic packaging tools from BSD ports to RPM expect a standard set of
options.

PostgreSQL currently contains a hack that does a macro substitution
s/info/doc/ to create a --docdir option, but that evidently does not catch
all cases. Also, I'm getting reports that it breaks package builds
because they automatically provide an --infodir argument.

At this point I'm more than inclined to give up on that, put --infodir
back, and give the docdir a less attractive option like --with-docdir.
Additionally, we could add the oppositve sense --without-docdir to prevent
installation of the documentation, because some packaging tools, notably
RPM and Debian, like to install the documentation themselves. (No doubt
this is originally founded in the lack of an appropriate option --docdir,
but it's too late to philosophize about that now.)

Comments?

--
Peter Eisentraut peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net