[BUG]: DESTDIR support not working correctly in xemacs 21.5.27

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Hans de Graaff writes:

 > I agree that the files that are specific to an XEmacs version can go into
 > /usr/lib/xemacs-$VERSION, but I was actually referring to the package
 > hierarchy. The default for this is also to put all these packages into
 > /usr/lib, but these should really go to /usr/share.

I see your point.  Still, I don't think *we* should change our
defaults, for backwards compatibility for users with an existing
installation, and perhaps multiple installations of the core sharing a
single package tree.

OTOH, AFAIK for a distro specifying that requires adding
--with-package-prefix[1] to the ./configure line and changing
XEMACS_INSTALLED_PACKAGES_ROOT in packages/Local.rules.  The latter
typically needs to be frobbed in any case, as different distros have
varying ideas of the appropriate name for that directory.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think it's very hard to get
what you want.

If somebody wants to add code to configure.ac that detects an existing
package installation under /usr/local/lib and warn that the default
has changed (maybe configure should refuse to continue without a
specific location for the packages in that case), I'd be willing to
help with that as an acceptable (to me ;-) but I doubt anybody will
object) transitional strategy to a conforming default.  (Don't hold
your breath waiting for me to do it though, my configure skills are
pretty rusty and at least some of the install-directory-finding code
has changed dramatically recently.)

Footnotes: 
[1]  Or whatever the flavor of the week is for that configure option.