installing libs on Windows

[Simon Hausmann]

On Saturday 21 July 2007 04:55:15 Alexander Neundorf wrote:
> Hi,
>
> on Windows there is no RPATH, so the only way for executables to find their
> dlls (e.g. kdecore.dll) is that either
> A) the dlls are in the same directory as the executable, or
> B) the directory where the dlls are is in the PATH.
>
> In KDE4 we currently do:
> INSTALL(TARGETS kdecore DESTINATION ${LIB_INSTALL_DIR})
> This means we rely on option B).
>
> We could do the following:
> INSTALL(TARGETS kdecore
>                              LIBRARY DESTINATION ${LIB_INSTALL_DIR}
>                              RUNTIME DESTINATION ${BIN_INSTALL_DIR}
>                              ARCHIVE DESTINATION ${LIB_INSTALL_DIR})
>
> This will install the .so and .dylib files to LIB_INSTALL_DIR ("LIBRARY"),
> the .dll files and executables to BIN_INSTALL_DIR ("RUNTIME") and the .lib
> and .a files also to LIB_INSTALL_DIR ("ARCHIVE").
>
> It is then also possible to install libs and executables with one command:
> INSTALL(TARGETS kdecore  kde4-config
>                              LIBRARY DESTINATION ${LIB_INSTALL_DIR}
>                              RUNTIME DESTINATION ${BIN_INSTALL_DIR}
>                              ARCHIVE DESTINATION ${LIB_INSTALL_DIR})
>
> The Windows developers would prefer this, the executables will be able to
> run without changing the PATH. How will the executables actually be
> installed ? Via an installer which can also adjust the PATH maybe ?
>
> Anyway, this would mean that this full syntax has to be used for every
> installed library, otherwise it won't work on Windows.
> As it is now, it's a bit harder for the Windows guys but safes the average
> Linux KDE hacker from thinking about Windows and he can just do
> INSTALL(TARGETS mylib DESTINATION lib)
> (of course LIB_INSTALL_DIR is better but in most cases it's just the same
> result) and it will still work on Windows (if the system is already able to
> run any KDE app).
>
> So, are their objections against using the full INSTALL() syntax everywhere
> ?

Sounds complicated to me. Why not just install the dlls always into 
${BIN_INSTALL_DIR} by setting ${LIB_INSTALL_DIR} to the bin dir on Windows? 
(unless otherwise specified)

As far as I can see this is the standard on Windows anyway, and I don't see 
what _problem_ we would really solve by introducing a more complex syntax.


Just my two cents,
Simon
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