Deciphering a Porter's Handbook paragraph

[Benjamin Kaduk]

On Tue, 3 Jan 2012, Warren Block wrote:

> On Tue, 3 Jan 2012, Benjamin Kaduk wrote:
>
>> I don't think we've yet said something like:
>> LOCALBASE should be set to where existing ports have already been installed 
>> (the ``base directory'' of where the ``local additions'' to the system have 
>> been made); it is uncommon for having PREFIX != LOCALBASE in normal usage.
>> We probably should say something like that.
>
> ISWYM, but am going to delay on that for a bit to try to address the existing 
> problems before adding information.
>
> The more I looked at section 9.4, the more I wanted to rework it. Here is the 
> original:
> http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/porters-handbook-orig/book.html#PORTING-PREFIX
>
> Here is a first pass at some improvements:
> http://www.wonkity.com/~wblock/porters-prefix/book.html#PORTING-PREFIX

Sure seems like an improvement, but it's easier to compare in the form of 
a diff, I think.

>
> I removed the reference to LOCALBASE sometimes being /opt.  Maybe it is, but 
> that's covered under the "custom path".

Fine by me; people who want to use /opt almost certainly already know 
about /opt ...

>
> There are also the references to /usr/X11R6 and imake.  Are those still 
> relevant?

/usr/X11R6 is dead.
devel/imake still exists, so I wouldn't be surprised if some ports used 
it.

>
> Then there's this:
>
>  The variable PREFIX can be reassigned in your Makefile or in the
>  user's environment.  However, it is strongly discouraged for
>  individual ports to set the variable explicitly in the Makefiles.
>
> "You absolutely should not press this big shiny button right here."
> Or is that trying to say you can set PREFIX in make.conf or as an environment 
> variable, but don't set it in the *port's* Makefile?
> Instead:
>
>  PREFIX should not be set explicitly in a port's Makefile.  Users
>  installing the port may have reassigned PREFIX, and the port should
>  respect that.

That's my understanding.  PREFIX does seem more like a make.conf thing 
than a command-line thing, to me, so it might be worth mentioning 
make.conf explicitly.

-Ben