Re: gnustep-make doesn't support install software in different prefix

[Richard Frith-Macdonald]

> On 22 Sep 2022, at 14:22, Zhu Zihao <all_but_last@163.com> wrote:
> 
> Current gnustep-make cannot handle the situation well if gnustep-make,
> gnustep-base etc. were installed in different install prefix, which is
> very common in Nix or Guix package manager.
> 
> While installing gnustep-make, many variable like GNUSTEP_MAKEFILES were
> set to the prefix of gnustep-make. While installing other packages use
> gnustep-make, gnustep-make will try to install additional makefile to
> the prefix of gnustep-make, which is read-only in Nix store.
> 
> Does GNUStep developers have a plan to improve the support of installing
> different components in different prefix? 

The 'make install' command is meant to place things in a *standard* location so 
that other software can find it easily.
There are three standard locations, System, Local, and User
Those locations are configurable: look at the documentation for the filesystem 
layout for the way those locations are defined by GNUstep.conf 
Which of those locations is used to for a package is configurable: look at the 
documentation for GNUSTEP_INSTALLATION_DOMAIN to control *which* of the 
standard locations is used .

If you are using a distribution where GNUstep is pre-installed and your account 
does not have permission to write files to the System or Local domain 
locations, you can generally install into the User domain.

For packages where installation location does not matter (eg applications) 
because other software doesn't need to find it, you can simply move/copy the 
package to the desired location.