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Re: 5.0 "make install" bug and fix



Greg E. Priest-Dorman <priestdo@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>I noticed something in the latest release that does not quite work as
>described in the Makefile, but don't wory it's easy to fix.
>...
>Make ignores the prefix directive.  It uses "/usr" for the prefix no
>mater what you type after "make".  So "make install" wants to install
>in to /usr/bin, /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp and /usr/info even if you
>specify "make prefix=/usr/local" every step of the way.

It may depend on what version of make you are using.  As an
experiment, I created a Makefile with only these three lines:

  prefix=/usr
  all:
  	  @echo prefix is $(prefix)

Then I tried it with and without a command line argument, with these
results:

  $ make
  prefix is /usr
  $ make prefix=/usr/local
  prefix is /usr/local

I am using the Slackware 3.1 distribution of Linux, which has this
version of make:

  $make --version
  GNU Make version 3.74, by Richard Stallman and Roland McGrath.
  Copyright (C) 1988, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
  There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
  PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

                               - Jim Van Zandt