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sys_select, sys_time: port 2013-01-30 Solaris 2.6 fix to Cygwin Problem reported by Marco Atzeri in <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2013-03/msg00000.html>. * lib/sys_select.in.h [HAVE_SYS_SELECT_H && _CYGWIN_SYS_TIME_H]: Simply delegate to the system <sys/select.h> in this case too. Also, pay attention to _GL_SYS_SELECT_H_REDIRECT_FROM_SYS_TIME_H only if OSF/1, since otherwise Cygwin breaks, and it doesn't seem to be needed on Solaris either. * lib/sys_time.in.h [_CYGWIN_SYS_TIME_H]: Simply delgate to the system <sys/time.h> in this case.
author Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>
date Tue, 19 Mar 2013 09:08:47 -0700
parents 64131ac8b004
children
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28ddd7a26347 Documentation of relocatability for users / installers.
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1 @node Enabling Relocatability
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2 @section Enabling Relocatability
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3
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4 It has been a pain for many users of GNU packages for a long time that
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5 packages are not relocatable. It means a user cannot copy a program,
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6 installed by another user on the same machine, to his home directory,
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7 and have it work correctly (including i18n). So many users need to go
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8 through @code{configure; make; make install} with all its
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9 dependencies, options, and hurdles.
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10
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11 Red Hat, Debian, and similar package systems solve the ``ease of
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12 installation'' problem, but they hardwire path names, usually to
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13 @file{/usr} or @file{/usr/local}. This means that users need root
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14 privileges to install a binary package, and prevents installing two
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15 different versions of the same binary package.
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16
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17 A relocatable program can be moved or copied to a different location
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18 on the file system. It is possible to make symlinks to the installed
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19 and moved programs, and invoke them through the symlink. It is
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20 possible to do the same thing with a hard link @emph{only} if the hard
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21 link file is in the same directory as the real program.
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22
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23 To configure a program to be relocatable, add
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24 @option{--enable-relocatable} to the @command{configure} command line.
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25
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26 On some OSes the executables remember the location of shared libraries
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27 and prefer them over any other search path. Therefore, such an
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28 executable will look for its shared libraries first in the original
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29 installation directory and only then in the current installation
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30 directory. Thus, for reliability, it is best to also give a
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31 @option{--prefix} option pointing to a directory that does not exist
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32 now and which never will be created, e.g.@:
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33 @option{--prefix=/nonexistent}. You may use
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34 @code{DESTDIR=@var{dest-dir}} on the @command{make} command line to
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35 avoid installing into that directory.
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36
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37 We do not recommend using a prefix writable by unprivileged users
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38 (e.g.@: @file{/tmp/inst$$}) because such a directory can be recreated
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39 by an unprivileged user after the original directory has been removed.
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40 We also do not recommend prefixes that might be behind an automounter
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41 (e.g.@: @file{$HOME/inst$$}) because of the performance impact of
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42 directory searching.
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43
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44 Here's a sample installation run that takes into account all these
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45 recommendations:
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46
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47 @example
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48 ./configure --enable-relocatable --prefix=/nonexistent
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49 make
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50 make install DESTDIR=/tmp/inst$$
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51 @end example
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53 Installation with @option{--enable-relocatable} will not work for
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54 setuid or setgid executables, because such executables search only
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55 system library paths for security reasons. Also, installation with
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56 @option{--enable-relocatable} might not work on OpenBSD, when the
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57 package contains shared libraries and libtool versions 1.5.xx are used.
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58
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59 The runtime penalty and size penalty are negligible on GNU/Linux (just
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60 one system call more when an executable is launched), and small on
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61 other systems (the wrapper program just sets an environment variable
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62 and executes the real program).