GNU bug report logs -
#22935
W32 Binaries should have a top-level directory
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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):
I've just noticed that between 24.3 and 24.4 the directory structure of
the W32 binaries has changed significantly, and now lacks a top-level
directory. Instead, they have the unix style /var, /share, /bin
directories.
I have discussed the issue with Eli who thinks this is right, and
briefly summarise the reasons and my objections here.
1) It's a standard way of distributing MinGW binaryes
2) You can unpack a latter version on top of an existing version, and
run multiple versions without fiddling with PATH.
My counter is:
1) Having no top-level directory is fairly unexpected for software
containing zip file (outside of a package management system). For
example, the Emacs W-64 binaries on Sourceforge have a top-level Emacs
directory.
2) A top-level directory makes it easily to remove things again
afterwards.
3) The windows Emacs distribution now has no obvious README or COPYING
notice -- this cannot go top-level, without a top-level directory.
I would suggest that future Emacs zip files contain a top-level
directory with the same name as the zip file, underneath which comes
/var, /share, /bin, plus README.W32, plus COPYING. This still makes it
easily to install over an existing distribution with a copy command.
This bug report was last modified 3 years and 307 days ago.
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Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham,
1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd,
1994-97 Ian Jackson.