Re: [jamboost] Search paths for configuration files

From: Vladimir Prus (ghost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-02-11 10:28:59

On Thursday 10 February 2005 20:29, Michael Stevens wrote:
> On Thursday 10 February 2005 08:27, Vladimir Prus wrote:
> > On Wednesday 09 February 2005 19:43, David Abrahams wrote:
> > > On linux we search /etc for the site-config.jam. Doesn't something
> > > under /usr/local (maybe /usr/local/etc) seem like it should be
> > > searched too?
> >
> > I don't think so:
> > http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#THEUSRHIERARCHY
> > says:
> >
> > /usr is the second major section of the filesystem. /usr is shareable,
> > read-only data. That means that /usr should be shareable between various
> > FHS-compliant hosts and must not be written to. Any information that is
> > host-specific or varies with time is stored elsewhere.
> >
> > So, /usr is not for any configuration files at all.
> >
> > > On all systems we search $BOOST_BUILD_PATH. But the build system may
> > > not be installed in $BOOST_BUILD_PATH (because its location is
> > > specified by boost-build.jam). Shouldn't we look in the build system
> > > directory first?
>
> I think the issue is complicated by the fact the the file is called
> "site-config.jam" and not "host-config.jam". If the config was for a
> specific host then "/etc" would be OK. For a site config "/etc" is
> definitely wrong!
>
> With this in mind my prefered location from the FHS would be
> "/usr/local/share". 

Ick! Actually "share" is for architecture-independent files which are *not* 
configs.

What I had in mind all along is that when Boost.Build is installed by a 
package management system of Debian:

- bjam goes to /usr/bin (like all installed binaries)
- Boost.Build does to /usr/share/boost-build
- configs go to /etc

That's the standard convention for Debian and putting anything to /usr/local 
is out of question. I think other systems have similar conventions.

When Boost.Build is installed manually, then /usr/local is the right place for 
almost everything, except for site-config.jam. I'm not sure what's the right 
location for site-config.jam in that case, but if boost-build is just copied 
to /usr/local/share/boost-build, then site-config.jam will be in 
BOOST_BUILD_PATH and we don't need to do anything to make it found.

- Volodya