Uday Reddy writes:
 > Tim Cross writes:
 > 
 > > However, not sure if <prefix>/share/emacs/etc is the correct
 > > location. Not all distros have a <prefix>/share/emacs/etc
 > > directory. Ubuntu and Debian certainly don't.
 > 
 > The distros decide their own directory structure. What we put in
 > our build is only indicative.
 >

Correct.
 
 > The problem we face is that Gnu Emacs sets up a site-lisp directory
 > for elisp files, but it doesn't set up site-bin, site-info and
 > site-etc directories for the other kinds of files. The rationale
 > for site-xxx naming is so that they can be preserved when you
 > upgrade Emacs.
 > 
 > > Another problem with using <prefix>/share/emacs/etc is that I
 > > don't think many users would actually look there for
 > > documentation. Much more likely to look in /usr/share/doc/vm.
 > 
 > But they go to emacs/etc to find the GNUS-NEWS?
 >

Not quite. Under Debian/Ubuntu, the contents of the emacs etc directory are
put in /usr/share/emacs/<emacs-version>/etc. Note that distros derived from
Debian are setup in such a way to allow multiple emacs versions to be
installed at the same time. This means potentially multiple emacs etc
directories. 

The more I think about it, the less I think this is worth doing. Given that

* Distro package maintainers will put the files whereever is customzry for
  their system

* We cannot know or satisfy the various different distro policies on file
  locations. 

* Distro package maintainers like to avoid making changes to upstream sources
  if possible

* The current proposal would involve creation of a directory and installation
  of a single file which none of the distro maintainers are likely to want,
  requiring them to modify more of the upstream sources. It is also unlikely
  anyone who is installing from sources rather than a package will look in
  <prefix./share/emacs/etc (or even know the directory exists). 

* Putting the file in the emacs etc directory i.e.
  <prefix>share/emacs/<emacs-version>/etc is a bad idea as it ties that NEWS
  file to a specific emacs version. If the user updates their emacs, the VM
  news file is in the wrong etc directory (or is lost when the user removes
  that directory). I also don't think we should mix up emacs and non-core
  elisp files. 

* The proposal is of little benefit to anyone installing by hand as they will
  have the NEWS file in the root directory of the tar ball or bzr branch
  anyway. 

* It is common on many systems (Debian, Ubuntu, RedHat, Fedora, CentOS) for
  README, NEWS, ChangeLog, configuraiton examples, additional documentation
  etc to go in /usr/share/doc/<package>. It is also common to see bug reports
  logged against distro packages that have failed to include a file in this
  directory which the upstream maintainers feel is important for end users. 

* The use of an etc/ directory to put the NEWS file doesn't really fit with
  the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.

My suggestions would be 

1. Modify the install to put the NEWS, README and any other files that a
relevant in <prefix>/share/doc/vm. While this will require the creation of
both a share/doc and share/doc/vm directory on many systems that don't have a
/usr/local/share/doc directory, it will fit in with many distros who do have a
/usr/share/doc directory. It will represent less work for many package
maintainers and make it more likely the files are included. It is also a
common location that end-users will use when looking for additional docs.
Finally, it fits in better with the FHS. 

2. Add a README.package_maintainers or similar that asks them to ensure the
NEWS (and any other relevant files for end-users) are included in their
package. I've seen other source distributions do this. 

3. When we become aware of a distro package that has not put the NEWS file
(and any others we think are important) in their package, log a bug against
that package. 

Tim

-- 
Tim Cross
<email address hidden>

There are two types of people in IT - those who do not manage what they 
understand and those who do not understand what they manage.