On Sun, 15 Mar 2009, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> * Ralf Wildenhues wrote on Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 11:43:03AM CET:
> > I have a patch to let 'make install' not create installation directories
> > in which no files will end up. This half-fixes a long-standing TODO
> > item; so far, one had to work around this with conditionals and hacks in
> > order to achieve it.
> >
> > However, there is a downside: this patch does not fix the TODO item for
> > the 'installdirs' target (yet). Do you still think it's worthwhile to
> > have, and ok if we leave installdirs to be fixed in a later version?
>
> There is another downside: up to now, one could use something like
> foo_DATA =
>
> to let $(DESTDIR)$(foodir) be created at installation time. This of
> course no longer works, and as such is a backward incompatibility.
Was this ever a documented feature?
> The patch is still missing a documentation update. I suppose we need to
> document an alternative.
I'm not sure where this would go but perhaps something like:
[-----snip-----]
In previous versions of Automake an empty data directory could be created
during installation simply by specifying an empty DATA primary like:
@example
foo_DATA =
@end example
Newer versions of Automake do not implicitly create empty installation
directories. Behavior identical to the above may be achieved by using
@code{install-data-hook} to create the directory.
@example
install-data-hook:
$(mkdir_p) $(DESTDIR)$(foodir)
@end example
[-----snap-----]
I wasn't actually sure whether this should use install-data-hook or
install-data-local.
~Allan
