Re: Fixed directory locations in installs

Peter Eisentraut wrote:

>Andrew Dunstan wrote:
>
>
>>Common practice, for one thing. Windows programs are typically
>>relocatable, and Windows admins regard programs that rely on
>>hardcoded paths very poorly indeed.
>>
>>
>
>OK, but how can that work in general? How do other programs handle
>this? I don't think we should design a solution that goes like "ok, if
>we move that file from share to lib then we could get away with it for
>now". That will only postpone the potential problems. There needs to
>be a definite and fixed place where programs can go looking to find the
>files they need. Maybe it should be stored in that registry thing?
>
>
>
>

Not portable. Also, storing things in the registry is pretty much the
Windows equivalent of storing things in /etc, an idea which has lately
been treated with less than universal approval, and suffers from almost
exactly the same problems. In particular, we need to ensure that a) you
don't need to be root/Administrator to install, and b) you can reliably
have multiple installations coexisting.

cheers

andrew