[MPlayer-users] DOCS and distributions

[Karl Ewald]

Someone recently raised the question why distributions don't include the
DOCS directory in binary packages, or why people don't find the docs.

I may be mistaken but it is my understanding in general that a make install
of a package should place everything relevant for using the program in
suitable places of the filesystem so that the src directory can safely be
removed, unless the user is into reading code and debugging. 

Looking at the Makefile I can only see that it installs the manpage, as far
as documentation goes. I notice that the FreeBSD port Makefile itself copies
certain files in DOCS to /usr/local/share/docs/mplayer to make them
available after an install but I am not sure whether this should be expected
of a packager or whether it would be the more proper way for configure to
determine a DOCSDIR and for 'make install' to install the docs just like the
other files relevant for runtime. It would certainly help against oversight
both by unattentive packagers and by end users who install from source.

>From a few random packages I've looked at it would appear that at least some
do install additional doc files, other convert everything that smells of
documentation into manpages and install those. Just leaving documentation
lying in the source tree may be an obvious place for a developer but not
necessarily for a user.

Karl Ewald