--sysconfdir configure parameter specifies both config file install dir AND search dir.

Question

I would like see if my understanding about the --sysconfdir configure script parameter is correct. According to

http://www.lavrsen.dk/foswiki/bin/view/Motion/ConfigureScript

--sysconfdir specifies where motion both installs the default configuration file and also where it later searches for it. Having both set to the same place is causing me problems.

I am trying to cross compile motion on an x86 linux machine where I don't have super user privileges to run on an ARM linux target where I do. The ARM target doesn't have the ability to locally compile which is why I'm going through the tedium of cross compiling .

On the X86 host where I am compiling I would like "make install" to install everything (the binaries and config files and man pages etc) in a directory that I control. I use the --prefix option to specify this directory. Let's call it

/localX86/motion/

But when I do the configure script sets "sysconfdir" to ${prefix}/etc ... that is /localX86/motion-binaries/etc

Then if I try to run the created motion binary on my ARM machine, it looks for motion.conf in the non-existent "/localX86/motion/etc"

If I try to also set the configure parameter "--sysconfdir" to "/usr/local/etc" to overcome this problem then the "make install" script tries to install motion-dist.conf in "/usr/local/etc" on the X86 linux machine I'm building on. I don't have SU privileges and I have no write access to "/usr/local/etc" so "make install" bombs out.

I have worked around this issue by manually editing the "install:" section of the generated Makefile after running configure but for the sake of making motion a perfect project I have lodged this support request.

I acknowledge this is a very low priority issue but in case someone else comes across it I thought I should make a note of it.

Thanks very much.

$./configure --prefix=/localX86/motion  --sysconfdir=/usr/local/etc  --host=arm 
<configures ok>
$make
<builds ok>
$make install
Installing files...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mkdir -p /localX86/motion/bin
mkdir -p /localX86/motion/man1
mkdir -p /usr/local/etc
mkdir -p /localX86/motion/share/doc/motion-trunkREV561
mkdir -p /localX86/motion/share/motion-trunkREV561/examples
install motion.1 /localX86/motion/share/man/man1
install CHANGELOG COPYING CREDITS INSTALL README motion_guide.html /localX86/motion/share/doc/motion-trunkREV561
install *.conf motion.init-Debian motion.init-Fedora motion.init-FreeBSD.sh /localX86/motion/share/motion-trunkREV561/examples
install motion-dist.conf /usr/local/etc
install: cannot create regular file `/usr/local/etc/motion-dist.conf': Permission denied
make-3.79.1-p7: *** [install] Error 1


    

Environment

Motion version:	trunkREV564
ffmpeg version:	2.5.git
Libraries:	ffmpeg
Server OS:	Redhat, kernel 2.6.35

-- AlanFord - 09 Feb 2015

Answer