Re: enabling shared builds

[Kris Van Hees <kris.van.hees@oracle.com>]

On Thu, Dec 13, 2007 at 06:19:06PM -0500, Andrew Cagney wrote:
> Kris Van Hees wrote:
>>> Andrew Cagney wrote:
>>> - switch to install-tree testing
>>> Would mean breaking configure convention and set --prefix=.  On the other 
>>> hand it would mean only testing one way.

> Seems I've created a little confusion with "and set -prefix".  I don't 
> think anyone was thinking of installing into /usr, which, if nothing else, 
> would require root privileges..  --prefix would need to be pointed at 
> something like $BUILD/_oinst and then overridden when doing a system 
> build/install.

That does indeed resolve the issue of overwriting an existing installation
but it does nothing to avoid the fundamental problem with requiring to do
the install step prior to running development tests.  This is exactly the
kind of situation where software engineering commonly separates the
development testsuite from a release testsuite (which is typically done
on an installed version of the project).

I am sure someone can come up with an existing project that does require
installation in some location prior to running development level tests, but
I honestly cannot remember ever encountering a single one.  We're facing a
quite common problem, so I think we ought to be able to pick an already well
established solution, and run with it.

	Cheers,
	Kris