Subject: Re: bug#14064: info.info page has conflict with info package

From: Glenn Morris <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:29:50 -0400

Eli Zaretskii wrote:

>> So AFAICS there is nothing clever the Emacs install rule can do
>> here. As I said, I'd just make the rpm spec file unconditionally not
>> install Emacs's info.info.
>
> How is an rpm more clever than Emacs?  What do they do that Emacs's
> installation procedure cannot?

I won't explain this very well, but:

You configure+build+install once on one machine, making a binary rpm
that other people install on their machines. When they do so, they don't
run any of the Emacs Makefile pieces, the rpm just unpacks itself (like
a tar file, I guess, but smarter, registering what file gets installed
where, etc). It can choose to do various clever things at installation
time, but these things are controlled by the rpm's specification file,
not by any part of the Emacs normal installation rules.

AFAICS, there is literally nothing smart the Emacs Makefiles can do
about this issue, because they are not invoked at the relevant point.