Re: install-html and install-pdf improvements

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:48:57 +0000 (UTC)
> From: "Joseph S. Myers" <joseph@codesourcery.com>
> cc: gdb-patches@sourceware.org
> 
> > > On Fri, 17 Apr 2009, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Yes, but I don't understand why did you need to define docdir in
> > > > addition to pdfdir and htmldir.  Unlike the other two, docdir is not
> > > > used anywhere, so why define it?
> > > 
> > > The default definitions of htmldir and pdfdir use ${docdir}
> > 
> > Sorry, I'm not following: what default definitions?  These variables
> > are used neither in your patch nor in the current doc/Makefile.in.
> > What am I missing?
> 
> The default definitions in the toplevel configure.ac, at least.
> 
> docdir="\${datarootdir}/doc"
> pdfdir="\${docdir}"
> htmldir="\${docdir}"

That's okay, but I wasnt asking about the top level.  What I was
asking about are these specific parts of the patch, which relate to
subdirectories, not to the top-level configure and Makefile.in:

Index: gdb/Makefile.in
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/src/gdb/Makefile.in,v
retrieving revision 1.1076
diff -u -r1.1076 Makefile.in
--- gdb/Makefile.in	30 Mar 2009 19:54:19 -0000	1.1076
+++ gdb/Makefile.in	17 Apr 2009 11:28:54 -0000
@@ -40,8 +40,10 @@
 man8dir = $(mandir)/man8
 man9dir = $(mandir)/man9
 infodir = @infodir@
-pdfdir = $(prefix)/share/doc/gdb
-htmldir = $(prefix)/html
+datarootdir = @datarootdir@
+docdir = @docdir@
+htmldir = @htmldir@
+pdfdir = @pdfdir@
 includedir = @includedir@
 
 # This can be referenced by `LIBINTL' as computed by
@@ -530,6 +532,9 @@
 	"prefix=$(prefix)" \
 	"exec_prefix=$(exec_prefix)" \
 	"infodir=$(infodir)" \
+	"datarootdir=$(datarootdir)" \
+	"docdir=$(docdir)" \
+	"htmldir=$(htmldir)" \
 	"pdfdir=$(pdfdir)" \
 	"libdir=$(libdir)" \
 	"mandir=$(mandir)" \

Index: gdb/configure.ac
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/src/gdb/configure.ac,v
retrieving revision 1.92
diff -u -r1.92 configure.ac
--- gdb/configure.ac	15 Apr 2009 22:20:31 -0000	1.92
+++ gdb/configure.ac	17 Apr 2009 11:28:55 -0000
@@ -1955,6 +1955,12 @@
 AC_DEFINE(GDB_DEFAULT_HOST_CHARSET, "UTF-8",
           [Define to be a string naming the default host character set.])
 
+dnl Required by html, pdf, install-pdf and install-html
+AC_SUBST(datarootdir)
+AC_SUBST(docdir)
+AC_SUBST(htmldir)
+AC_SUBST(pdfdir)
+
 AC_OUTPUT(Makefile .gdbinit:gdbinit.in gnulib/Makefile,
 [
 dnl Autoconf doesn't provide a mechanism for modifying definitions 

Index: gdb/doc/configure.ac
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/src/gdb/doc/configure.ac,v
retrieving revision 1.2
diff -u -r1.2 configure.ac
--- gdb/doc/configure.ac	5 Jun 2008 22:36:56 -0000	1.2
+++ gdb/doc/configure.ac	17 Apr 2009 11:28:55 -0000
@@ -3,6 +3,11 @@
 sinclude(../../config/acx.m4)
 AC_PROG_INSTALL
 AC_PROG_LN_S
+dnl Required by html, pdf, install-pdf and install-html
+AC_SUBST(datarootdir)
+AC_SUBST(docdir)
+AC_SUBST(htmldir)
+AC_SUBST(pdfdir)
 ACX_PKGVERSION([GDB])
 ACX_BUGURL([http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/])
 AC_OUTPUT(Makefile)

AFAICS, neither gdb/Makefile.in, nor anyone of the Makefile.in files
in its subdirectory, including gdb/doc/, uses $(docdir).  So I'm
wondering why do we need a variable no one uses, and why do we pass it
to sub-Make?

IOW, why not just have $(htmldir) and $(pdfdir) in the Makefile's, and
let the top-level configure figure out where they should be, based on
"--with-*dir" switches?  The sub-Make's would then get these values
from the variables we pass to them, and there's no need to compute
$(docdir) again in subdirectories.  Note that, even according to your
patch, gdb/doc/Makefile.in does not define nor use $(docdir), only the
other two.  I'm asking why can't we do the same in gdb/ as well?