[plt-scheme] Re: install script comments

On May 19, David Van Horn wrote:
> 
> Eli Barzilay wrote:
> > The link is made with `ln -sf' which should remove an existing
> > file.  If that fails, then no prompts should help...  (I
> > considered `ln -si', but after reinstalling a new version you'll
> > just want to update all links.)
> 
> It doesn't on my system, even though the manuals state that it
> should.
> [...]

*sigh* yet again, solaris manages to come up with the right
combination of ancient utilities to confuse everyone...  I can
replicate this behavior on the solaris I'm using if I'm using /bin/ln.
(This seems the same as /usr/xpg4/bin/ln, and /usr/bin/ln which is the
same as /bin/ln, but unlike the local gnu ln (which comes first in my
path), and /usr/ucb/ln (which doesn't like -sf at all).  Isn't sun
nice?)


> However, this works fine:
> 
> > rm -f linktest-ln ; ln -s linktest linktest-ln

OK, I will change the installer to do this.


> > This is the behavior of every installer I've seen, including GUI
> > installers -- I've never seen an installer say "a version of
> > ... was found, do you want to reuse it".
> > 
> > (Why would you want to run the same install script twice?)
> 
> Because it failed the first time and I had to remove the links in
> the bin and man directories.

Well, that shouldn't have happened...  (If I had the time, I'd make it
identify when it crashed while installing but after expanding the
tree so it will re-use it the next time -- but given systems like sun
you can guess how much fun this is...)

-- 
          ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x)))          Eli Barzilay:
                  http://www.barzilay.org/                 Maze is Life!