Re: Fix for KDE source distributions

[Achim Bohnet <ach@mpe.mpg.de>]

On Thursday 17 January 2002 16:03, James Thorniley wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've done a patch for the acinclude.m4.in file which defines how source 
> distributions find the KDE install dirs that should make it work around the 
> non standard layout in debian (see my earlier posts re: location of docs etc. 
> someone has also mentioned the move of config files to /etc/kde2, which this 
> should also work around).

Hi James,

great to see something get's done and beside all this flaming.

While the patch is a nice idea for one special case (complete private
build without a kde-config lying around before compilation) it will
give unexpected results in the other cases (I've only looked
at the diff so I may be wrong).

Unfortunately it does not a fix for Debian KDE:

	o using kdeconfig from Debian gives you
		 /etc/kde2
		/usr/bin
	   etc.  But admins should install every non deb stuff
	   below /usr/local.

	o problem with /etc/kde2 is not fixed.   kde-config --install config
	  'always' returned /etc/kde2.  Nevertheless it's not used during
	  run time (see below).  Therefore for the config entry in /etc/kderc
	  is required and can not be used to define KDE stuff that's
	  installed below /usr/local/. :(

Here a demonstration of of the /etc/kde2 problem.  I was too
stupid/sleepy to figure out what goes wrong in kdestdirs.* code :(

ds10(1) ~ > kde-config --install config
/etc/kde2
ds10(0) ~ > su - -c "mv /etc/kderc{,.save}"
Password:
ds10(0) ~ > kde-config --install config
/etc/kde2
ds10(0) ~ > kde-config --path config
/home/ach/.kde2/share/config/:/usr/share/config/
ds10(0) ~ > su - -c "mv /etc/kderc{.save,}"
Password:
ds10(0) ~ > kde-config --path config
/home/ach/.kde2/share/config/:/usr/share/config/:/etc/kde2/
ds10(0) ~ >

	You see /usr/share/config is compiled into (kdestddir*)
	not /etc/kde2.   And this is the reason why /etc/kderc
	is there at all.  

	I could not convience Ivan to use the less intrusive link
	from /usr/share/config/ instead of /etc/.  Both do the same thing:

ds10[0] ~ # dpkg-divert --local --rename --add /etc/kderc
Adding `local diversion of /etc/kderc to /etc/kderc.distrib'
ds10[0] ~ # ln -s /etc/kde2/system.kdeglobals /usr/share/config/system.kdeglobals
ds10[0] ~ # kde-config --path config
/root/.kde/share/config/:/usr/share/config/:/etc/kde2/

	So everything works as before but my KDE cvs build is not
	f*** from time to time because it also uses /etc/kderc if
	available.  /etc/kderc can be really dangerous :(

Achim

> I haven't attached the patch because I'm not sure how much interest there 
> would be on this list. If you would like a copy either email me or get it 
> from my project on sourceforge
> http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/kcast/kcast/admin/acinclude.m4.in
> It's only been hacked internally, so it should work as a drop in replacement 
> for most KDE source distributions (might be worth a try if you cant get a 
> distribution to install properly, anyway).
> 
> Note this patch is a little dodgy since I'm not very experienced with 
> automake, I'm going to write to the kdevelop mailing list and see if anyone 
> is interested in taking a look to check I haven't actually screwed it in any 
> obvious way ;) If it turns out ok I will submit it to Stephan Kulow who 
> appears to be the current maintainer so it might get included somewhere 
> upstream, but I suspect it will be undergoing modifications for KDE3 so I 
> don't know how it would fit in.
> 
> Thanks
> James
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