> 4) The user specifies DESTDIR, at "make install" time, e.g. > > make install DESTDIR=staging/dir > > On MS-Windows hosts, this results in *unconditionally* malformed paths, > in the form > > staging/dirD:/installation/root/some/installation/path > > which is invalid; it can only ever be valid, if DESTDIR remains > unspecified.
OK, thanks, good to know. > In the days before the GNU Standards Committee were persuaded to > adopt DESTDIR, the prescribed technique was to configure prefix, > (and maybe also exec_prefix), to point to a testing sandbox: > > ./configure --prefix=/path/to/sandbox ... > > or to override them at "make install" time: > > make install prefix=/path/to/sandbox exec_prefix=/path/to/sandbox > > This technique remains as viable today, as it always was, and it > does not require DESTDIR; it also has the advantage of working on > MS-Windows hosts, where DESTDIR is guaranteed to fail. Exactly. BUT if DESTDIR gets used, I think it's nice that `uninstall' works, too. So there's no harm, which relieves me. :-) Werner