[Fedora-packaging] make install INSTALL="install -p" to guidelines

[Ralf Corsepius]

On 07/20/2009 03:28 PM, Jonathan Underwood wrote:
> 2009/7/20 Jonathan Underwood<jonathan.underwood at gmail.com>:
>> When building emacs add ons, it's necessary to install the byte
>> compiled (*.elc) files with -p so that when both the uncompiled
>> (*.el)and byte compiled files are installed emacs will read the byte
>> compiled sources - emacs looks at the timestamps of both the el and
>> elc and loads the elc if it's mtime is later than the .el. Not using
>> -p often results in emacs disregarding the elc file if the el source
>> file is installed, negating the usefulness of byte compilation.
>>
>
> Um, sorry, I got that backwards - the non byte compiled .el files need
> to be installed with -p, sorry. But you get the point.

Firstly, I don't deny that there are (very few) special cases in which 
INSTALL="install -p" might be necessary to work-around particular issues 
with certain packages (IIRC, some java packages have a similar problem).

However, it's equally easy to produce examples, in which 
INSTALL="install -p" has harmful effects.

That said, to me, INSTALL="install -p" is just a special case of 
environment variables, similar to many other special environment 
variables needed by certain packages.

Ralf

[I for one would read your issue's description as an upstream bug. If 
they have special demands on timestamps, they need to take care about it.]