hard-coded paths

[Constantine]

On 2004-04-11 10:58, Chuck Swiger wrote:

> Constantine wrote:
>
>> I am porting an application that has hard-coded paths for the message 
>> files. They are defined in the Makefile, but still they are hardcoded 
>> in the programme. Is there a way to go around this problem? As it is, 
>> the port will not work on systems with installations different from 
>> the one of compile time.
>
>
> Pre-built packages effectively have hard-coded paths in them 
> regardless, so you may be making more of this issue than you need to.
>
> If the Makefile is generated via the common ./configure process, the 
> ports Makefile ought to pass in an appropriate installation prefix if 
> the user has changed it from the default of /usr/local.  If the 
> program does something different, use REINPLACE_CMD to update the 
> hardcoded paths in place to whatever $LOCALBASE is set to.
>
> [ Perhaps you ought to set "NO_PACKAGE", too. ]

I was rather ambiguous in my question. The hard-coded paths will be in 
the compiled package only. If one is installing the application from 
ports via compilation, everything should work fine.

I am working on the port with the original developer and he is willing 
to make his application as portable as possible --- is there a way to 
avoid hard-coding the /local/ path? I.e., could the port use relative 
parts like "../share/portname/messages/"? How is it possible to do so? 
We would rather like to have a package for the port too.

Cheers,
Constantine.