KStandardDirs and Autopackage

[Arend van Beelen jr.]

Hi!

Maybe you've heard of the tool autopackage (http://autopackage.org). It's a 
tool that allows for distribution-neutral binary packaging. Currently we're 
readying Apollon for shipping it as an autopackage. Because of it's goal of 
cross-distro binaries it does require some changes to application though, 
basically to avoid hard-coded paths in the binaries. Fortunately KDE 
applications already use little hard-coded paths because they use 
KStandardDirs for locating files. Therefore, it's quite trivial (once you 
know it) to integrate KStandardDirs with autopackage so that KSD will not 
only scan KDE dirs, but also the directory into which the application was 
installed (not necessarily the main KDE dir anymore). Of course, the best 
solution would be to include the small library used (BinReloc) with 
KStandardDirs, so that application developers will automatically and 
transparently use this library. It won't require any changes to the API of 
KStandardDirs, it will just add a default location to search (including the 
logic that determines what that default is).
Now, do you think it would be a good idea to add this to KStandardDirs or 
would you prefer a different solution? FYI, A similar proposal has been sent 
to the GLib developers (though it's a bit more tough for them as they don't 
have a KStandardDirs-like API in place at all)

Bye,

Arend jr.

-- 
Arend van Beelen jr.
http://www.liacs.nl/~dvbeelen

No one survived from the Royal Fusiliers Company C - they were all left 
behind, most of them dead, the rest of them dying.
-- When the Tigers broke free, Pink Floyd