Re: The default $fpath

[Peter Stephenson <p.w.stephenson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 07 Sep 2014 22:53:02 +0300
Tanu Kaskinen <tanu.kaskinen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > I don't have a /usr/local on my system, I use /opt instead.  Will it
> > be possible to override the root?
> 
> I think it's probably a good idea to make the
> non-install-prefix-dependent directory configurable.

No, it won't be configurable at compile time.

You can already set fpath the way you want in an initialisation file.
The user can override it any way they like, so there's nothing you can
do to force them to use a particular path anyway.  So it's already
infinitely configurable by means of shell code, which is much more
flexible than configuration for compilation; if you're doing that the
builtin path becomes irrelevant.  As the shell doesn't use the directory
itself it doesn't really care at the point of installation, so there's
no gain in compiling in something you can change at run time.

The proposal is simply to provide a directory where there's some
reasonable chance it will be found by all installations of the shell on
the same system regardless of configuration.  If you don't care about
that particular directory because you use others, if you want to set up
your own system, and in particular if you have your own custom setup
files so the shell paths are how you like them, then this doesn't
interest you one way or the other.

In short, this is for people who *don't* want to configure the system
themselves; if everyone did, the problem wouldn't have arisen.  There
are already plenty of ways of doing it for those who do.  It is a
command shell, after all.   If this builtin default becomes configurable
to use different directories the whole advantage is lost; it's far better
to use common run-time code to ensure a non-default directory.

I seem to be labouring explaining this point...

I'd really like to know if there are any problems caused by *this*
proposal, adding /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions to the compiled-in
path.

pws