4.6.2 Installation Directory Variables

The following variables specify the directories where the package will be installed, see section `Variables for Installation Directories' in The GNU Coding Standards, for more information. See the end of this section for details on when and how to use these variables.

Variable: bindir

The directory for installing executables that users run.

Variable: datadir

The directory for installing read-only architecture-independent data.

Variable: exec_prefix

The installation prefix for architecture-dependent files. By default it's the same as prefix. You should avoid installing anything directly to exec_prefix. However, the default value for directories containing architecture-dependent files should be relative to exec_prefix.

Variable: includedir

The directory for installing C header files.

Variable: infodir

The directory for installing documentation in Info format.

Variable: libdir

The directory for installing object code libraries.

Variable: libexecdir

The directory for installing executables that other programs run.

Variable: localstatedir

The directory for installing modifiable single-machine data.

Variable: mandir

The top-level directory for installing documentation in man format.

Variable: oldincludedir

The directory for installing C header files for non-gcc compilers.

Variable: prefix

The common installation prefix for all files. If exec_prefix is defined to a different value, prefix is used only for architecture-independent files.

Variable: sbindir

The directory for installing executables that system administrators run.

Variable: sharedstatedir

The directory for installing modifiable architecture-independent data.

Variable: sysconfdir

The directory for installing read-only single-machine data.

Most of these variables have values that rely on prefix or exec_prefix. It is on purpose that the directory output variables keep them unexpanded: typically `@datadir@' will be replaced by `${prefix}/share', not `/usr/local/share'.

This behavior is mandated by the GNU coding standards, so that when the user runs:

`make'

she can still specify a different prefix from the one specified to configure, in which case, if needed, the package shall hard code dependencies to her late desires.

`make install'

she can specify a different installation location, in which case the package must still depend on the location which was compiled in (i.e., never recompile when `make install' is run). This is an extremely important feature, as many people may decide to install all the files of a package grouped together, and then install links from the final locations to there.

In order to support these features, it is essential that datadir remains being defined as `${prefix}/share' to depend upon the current value of prefix.

A corollary is that you should not use these variables but in Makefiles. For instance, instead of trying to evaluate datadir in `configure' and hardcoding it in Makefiles using e.g. `AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(DATADIR, "$datadir")', you should add `-DDATADIR="$(datadir)"' to your CPPFLAGS.

Similarly you should not rely on AC_OUTPUT_FILES to replace datadir and friends in your shell scripts and other files, rather let make manage their replacement. For instance Autoconf ships templates of its shell scripts ending with `.sh', and uses this Makefile snippet:

.sh: rm -f $@ $@.tmp sed 's,@datadir\@,$(pkgdatadir),g' $< >$@.tmp chmod +x $@.tmp mv $@.tmp $@

Three things are noteworthy:

`@datadir\@'

The backslash prevents configure from replacing `@datadir@' in the sed expression itself.

`$(pkgdatadir)'

Don't use `@pkgdatadir@'! Use the matching makefile variable instead.

`,'

Don't use `/' in the sed expression(s) since most probably the variables you use, such as `$(pkgdatadir)', will contain some.