Sstrhsrtj

I was viewing the output from Makefile.pdlibbuilder, and it looked like this:

....

install -m 755 -d -v "/usr/lib/pd/extra/MyPlugin~"

install -p -m 644 'MyPlugin~-help.pd' "/usr/lib/pd/extra/MyPlugin~";  

install -p -m 644 'MyPlugin~-meta.pd' "/usr/lib/pd/extra/MyPlugin~";  

install -p -m 644 'README.txt' "/usr/lib/pd/extra/MyPlugin~"; 

....

So, I gathered, the first command creates a directory, the other commands copy files in that directory. Good enough.

So, I wanted to copy a file to a directory, and so tried this in my makefile:

install-myfile:

        @echo "Note: DESTDIR '$(DESTDIR)' PDLIBDIR '$(PDLIBDIR)' <- myfile.txt"

        $(INSTALL_PROGRAM) myfile.txt "$(DESTDIR)$(PDLIBDIR)";

I run this, I get on output:

install -p -m 644 myfile.txt "/usr/local/lib/pd-externals";

... however, what this did, is removed existing directory /usr/local/lib/pd-externals, and copied myfile.txt under the name /usr/local/lib/pd-externals!!!!

I guess, it makes sense, since if (say) cp does not see a trailing slash, it thinks the path is a file; - and if it sees a trailing slash, it thinks it's a directory. BUT, the original examples that I was looking at do NOT include a trailing slash either - and yet they don't destroy directories, that is, overwrite them as a file?!

I don't really use install, so, I am really puzzled - why did this happen?

Note that the permissions -p -m 644 are apparently part of the $(INSTALL_PROGRAM) Makefile macro.

Did I really need a trailing slash for the directory, and if so, how is it possible that the ones in my example did not need one? Or - why did this happen?

EDIT: re-ran this a couple of times, and it turns out, if a directory doesn't already exists, the result of the process is a file at the directory path; but if a directory DOES exist already, then the file is copied inside it, regardless of the trailing slash. So it must be, I didn't have this directory to begin with...