Subject: Re: bug#70071: [FR] Provide official install scripts without requiring root, e.g., by making a static build possible

From: Po Lu <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2024 08:37:06 +0800

Rudi C <[email-masked]> writes:

> Given my lack of root access, I'm unsure about the best approach to
> install these libraries. Manually writing an installer script for
> every missing Emacs dependency raises concerns, as these dependencies
> might have their own dependencies, making the task complex,
> error-prone, and time-consuming. This approach may not be the most
> practical or efficient solution for the majority of users, and it
> certainly isn't the simple two-liner that your previous messages
> suggested. The complexity involved in manually resolving dependencies
> is precisely the reason I turned to package managers like Linuxbrew,
> Guix, and Nix in the first place.

It's a self-inflicted problem, isn't it?  Trying to install packages
against, presumably, the wishes of your system administrator, is an
uphill battle if ever there was one.  (And AFAIK Emacs builds with just
those two lines on the Guix System.)

We have neither the manpower nor the motivation to maintain build
scripts that automatically adapt to every oddball system that arrests
the fancy of Emacs users, or to write instructions for such systems
ourselves.  But a whit of manual effort that is well-documented in the
standard INSTALL file for Autoconf packages will suffice, and patches to
configure for these systems without manual intervention, or document the
process, will, as always, be welcome.