[opam-devel] Package requires copying into a system directory

[Anil Madhavapeddy]

On 15 Aug 2014, at 12:14, Dario Teixeira <darioteixeira at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I have a Camlhighlight package which is almost ready for pushing
> to the main OPAM repository.  There's a snag, however: proper
> installation requires that the file "src/sexp.outlang" be copied
> into the system directory "/usr/share/source-highlight".  This
> is of course the sort of thing that requires root permissions,
> which makes OPAM installation as a user more troublesome.
> 
> I've submitted a request for sexp.outlang to be shipped
> by default with GNU Source-highlight [1].  Once that happens,
> this problem will be moot.  It will take some time, however,
> for a new GNU Source-highlight version to percolate down to
> user distros, which is why an interim solution must be found.
> Moreover,  it doesn't seem like GNU Source-highlight supports
> a user data directory along side the system one, unfortunately.
> (I've asked on their mailing-list anyway.)

Support multiple directories really is the way to go.  Failing that,
can you override the global directory and point it into OPAM.  It
may be possible to mirror /usr/share/source-highlight via a post
install hook into ~/.opam/<...> if you can override the global
definition of the directory.

-anil