set "tRNAscan-SE.conf" to standard unix directory /etc

[kbipinkumar]

i am trying to package trnascan as installable package or archlinux. however the typical build flow from install instructions causes tRNAscan-SE.conf to be installed to /usr/bin folder. this is an undesirable behaviour discouraged by most linux distributions.

most systemwide install processes will install configuration files for packages to /etc folder.

is there a possibility for tweaking the build flow so that configuration files can be put in /etc?

[patriciaplchan]

We can look into adding an option for that. However, because most of our users are researchers who do not have root access for installation, we cannot put the configuration file in /etc as default.

[kbipinkumar]

We can look into adding an option for that.

it would be great if it can be managed

However, because most of our users are researchers who do not have root access for installation, we cannot put the configuration file in /etc as default.

i understand the reasoning. however this does cause issues when creating binary packages used for systemwide install by linux distro's package manager

standard make process allows for user setting of different conf directory using flags like this either by

$ make prefix=/usr sysconfdir=/etc

or

$ ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc
$ make

i have tried both approaches with source files downloaded from your repo and neither seems to have worked

tRNAscan-SE.src file seems to contain variable our $default_conf = "@bindir@/tRNAscan-SE.conf"; which i presume is the one setting the path for conf directory. if the same can modified during build time using make flags it would provide option for users where files can be installed depending upon their user privileges.

furthermore, if the conf file is in non user accessible folder (as is the case for systemwide installs by package managers) it can be set up in such a way that upon first run of any trnascan binary the default conf file from /etc location can be copied to user accessible location such as $HOME/.config/ and latter location taking precedence over the default /etc location

[patriciaplchan]

Thanks for your suggestion. We will consider that in our future releases.