'make install' to a local directory fails as non-root

[Daniel van Vugt]

In lp:unity/4.0 ...

mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=~/usr
make
make install

...
CMake Error at cmake_install.cmake:162 (FILE):
  file INSTALL cannot copy file
  "/home/dan/bzr/unity/run/com.canonical.Unity.gschema.xml" to
  "/usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/com.canonical.Unity.gschema.xml".

I think this is wrong. It should be possible to 'make install' unity to my local dir ~/usr

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Workaround:
CMakeCache.txt: GSETTINGS_LOCALINSTALL:BOOL=ON

Though I still think this is a bug. It seems to me that com.canonical.Unity.gschema.xml should honour CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX by default. Not as a special condition.

[Hernando Torque (htorque)]

Note: You can also add -DGSETTINGS_LOCALINSTALL=ON to the cmake command.

[Bilal Akhtar (bilalakhtar)]

Not sure, but is that because glib schemas MUST go to that directory and won't work anywhere else?

That's probably the reason why that line of cmake code doesn't respect the install prefix.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Correct, the schemas only work (apparently) in /usr/share.

However I think the Unity build system should do what the Compiz build system does by default - just give you a warning that the schemas won't work in the local directory, but install them anyway. It's much more functional for developers trying to build and run the code locally. But either way, this never affects regular users.