290724 - make install doesn't do anything

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 304239

(NSPR :: NSPR, defect)

Description

[Christopher Aillon (sabbatical, not receiving bugmail)]

Need to be able to type 'make install' to install to the correct locations,
--prefix, --libdir, etc.  Manual copying is very painful.

Comment 1

[Wan-Teh Chang]

This is a historical problem.  Netscape products' build
systems have been using a three step build process:
export, libs, install, and the "install" step is different
from the "make install" step of typical open-source products.
Netscape's "install" makefile target means installing
under the "dist" directory in the build tree.  In current
versions of Netscape-derived build systems, we have
combined installing with building, so the "install" makefile
target is useless now.

In NSPR you can use the "real_install" makefile target to
install to the correct locations, --prefix, --libdir, etc.
But I think we should be able to remove the current "install"
target and rename "real_install" as "install".

Comment 2

[Wan-Teh Chang]

Just FYI: http://lxr.mozilla.org/security/source/security/coreconf/README
has the best documentation of the old Netscape build system.  See its
description of the "all", "export", "libs", "program", and "install"
makefile targets.  (If I remember correctly, the "program" target was
a coreconf addition and not present in the original Netscape build
system.)  Note that we've already simplified the coreconf build system
to eliminate the "program" step and largely combine "install" with
"libs".

Comment 3

[Wan-Teh Chang]

That should be "the best documentation of *a derivative
of* the old Netscape build system."

Comment 4

[cls]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 304239 ***