Re: [Caml-list] Library installation procedure (for use with OPAM)?

[Sebastien Mondet <sebastien.mondet@gmail.com>]

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On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 10:57 AM, Daniel Bünzli
<daniel.buenzli@erratique.ch>wrote:

>
>
> Le lundi, 9 décembre 2013 à 16:23, Sebastien Mondet a écrit :
>
> > Opam's .install files should be used only to fix packages whose
> installation is already broken or unsufficient, shouldn't it?
>
> Where did you get that from ?
>
> A .install file is a good way of specifying what you want to install
> without having to replicate any installation logic in your package which is
> good when you develop and distribute many packages and need to scale.
>
> > If you rely *only* on the .install, your package can be installed only
> with opam, it will break for other users (GODI, WODI, Manual Package
> Management™, etc.).
>
> It can be installed by anything that understands what a .install file is,
> there's nothing specific to opam here. Godi is shutting down, Wodi could be
> make to understand .install file. Manual Package Management™, the file
> format of .install is very simple you could perfectly develop have a
> command line tool that reads it and issues the appropriate cp commands, I'm
> personally no longer interested in that form of package management and
> don't have the time to support it.
>
>

So, if everybody else have to implement them, opam's install files become a
new standard for the OCaml cummunity? Do most of us agree? (I'm not against
it, I just don't want to rely on 50 different standards).

(BTW, since you generate those .install files you could have generated
install.sh files doing the 'cp's as easily ;) )


> I think it's good hygiene to at least provide an ocamlfind-based
> installation of the libraries.
>
> As I said `ocamlfind install` doesn't allow you to install binaries, man
> pages, configuration files, documentation etc. With a .install file you can
> specify what you want to be installed to the classic unix paths (bin, etc,
> man, share, etc.).
>
>
yes but in practice `ocamlfind install` is enough to make most dependencies
of a given package work (a few times a `cp exec $BIN` is also needed
indeed).

(A while ago, before opam, a new version of GODI broke on our main platform
because of some ocamlnet configuration bug, but I was able to reinstall
ocaml and about 25 third-party libraries and syntax extensions from scratch
without too much pain → we see great value in that package-management
independence)






> Best,
>
> Daniel
>
>
>

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