Subject: Re: Autoconfigure & ModulePath

From: Steve Robbins <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 1998 13:29:37 -0500 (EST)

On 29 Oct 1998, Paul D. Smith wrote:

> One issue with the new directory layout: if we change where the modules
> live with every release it's going to get a bit ugly, since everyone
> will have to remember to change the modulepath in their .fvwm2rc, or
> else continue to use the old modules.
> 
> I think this is a big problem just waiting to happen.

A most excellent point.  

I had failed to consider this because my solution is to NOT set ModulePath
in system.fvwm2rc.  The compiled-in default is fine for me, as I never add
extra directories to the path.

> I think it would be nice if there were a way to reference the builtin
> module path from with your .fvwm2rc file; maybe something like:
> 
>   ModulePath  /my/module/path:+:/another/module/path
> 
> Where "+" stands for the compiled version.  That way people can add new
> module directories to the path but still allow upgrades to fvwm2 to pick
> the modules for that version.

Something like this should be done, I agree.

Rather than throwing in a quick, ill-thought-out hack to do this, I dodged
the issue by removing the lines in the sample system.fvwm2rc that set the
ModulePath, PixmapPath, and IconPath.

All of these can be set at compile time, and these defaults are built in
if nothing is set in the .fvwm2rc file.  Since
sample.fvwmrc/system.fvwm2rc is supposed to be a "bare bones" example, I
think it is reasonable to not even mention the existence of these paths. 

In the "sample 2" file, which is somewhat more verbose, I commented out
the path settings and preceeded them with the following warning:

##########################################################################
# PATH Setup 
#
# Not normally needed; use configure to set defaults at compile time.  
#
# IMPORTANT: if you decide to set a ModulePath, please note that modules
#            are normally installed into a version-dependent
#            directory.  Be sure to update this file after installing
#            a new version.

This should be good enough until we work out a better solution.
 
> From an autoconf perspective, I also think that all the system.fvwm2rc
> files in sample.fvwmrc should be replaced with .in versions, and the
> configure step should substitute the FVWM_MODULEDIR path for the
> ModulePath setting--there may be other things that should be substituted
> here, too.

Since you can configure these paths (Module, Icon, and Pixmap) at build
time, it seems better to just omit any lines setting them explicitly in
the sample files.  This covers the common case, and people don't need to
modify .fvwm2rc files when a new version is installed.

> Also, if some way of taking the default in ModulePath as I describe
> above isn't implemented, then I think the ModulePath setting in the same
> config files should be commented out to discourage people from copying
> them into their .fvwm2rc files.

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---

From: [email-masked] (Paul D. Smith)
Date: 02 Nov 1998 01:17:57 -0500

%% Steve Robbins <[email-masked]> writes:

  sr> Rather than throwing in a quick, ill-thought-out hack to do this,
  sr> I dodged the issue by removing the lines in the sample
  sr> system.fvwm2rc that set the ModulePath, PixmapPath, and IconPath.

OK... but we should add a notation to the NEWS file telling everyone who
has existing paths in their .fvwm2rc that (a) things install in
different places now, and (b) it's recommended that they don't put these
paths into their .fvwm2rc unless absolutely necessary.

I really think we need a better solution soon, though; (b) isn't really
a viable alternative many times.  For example, if people want to use 3rd
party modules like TkGoodStuff they either have to install it into the
fvwm version-specific modules directory (yuck!) or remember to change
their ~/.fvwm2rc file with each release--very error-prone.

And the PixmapPath and IconPath are even more problematic: I know very
few people who don't override one or both of those settings.

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Paul D. Smith <[email-masked]>         Network Management Development
 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   These are my opinions---Nortel Networks takes no responsibility for them.
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