configure scripts always include something like the following in the help message:
...
By default, `make install' will install all the files in
`/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/lib' etc. You can specify
an installation prefix other than `/usr/local' using `--prefix',
for instance `--prefix=$HOME'.
For better control, use the options below.
Fine tuning of the installation directories:
--bindir=DIR user executables [EPREFIX/bin]
--sbindir=DIR system admin executables [EPREFIX/sbin]
--libexecdir=DIR program executables [EPREFIX/libexec]
--sysconfdir=DIR read-only single-machine data [PREFIX/etc]
--sharedstatedir=DIR modifiable architecture-independent data [PREFIX/com]
--localstatedir=DIR modifiable single-machine data [PREFIX/var]
--libdir=DIR object code libraries [EPREFIX/lib]
--includedir=DIR C header files [PREFIX/include]
--oldincludedir=DIR C header files for non-gcc [/usr/include]
--datarootdir=DIR read-only arch.-independent data root [PREFIX/share]
--datadir=DIR read-only architecture-independent data [DATAROOTDIR]
--infodir=DIR info documentation [DATAROOTDIR/info]
--localedir=DIR locale-dependent data [DATAROOTDIR/locale]
--mandir=DIR man documentation [DATAROOTDIR/man]
--docdir=DIR documentation root
[DATAROOTDIR/doc/gedit-line-ending-style-plugin]
--htmldir=DIR html documentation [DOCDIR]
--dvidir=DIR dvi documentation [DOCDIR]
--pdfdir=DIR pdf documentation [DOCDIR]
--psdir=DIR ps documentation [DOCDIR]
Program names:
--program-prefix=PREFIX prepend PREFIX to installed program names
...
What I would like to do is add "plugindir", to this section, as in:
... --dvidir=DIR dvi documentation [DOCDIR] --pdfdir=DIR pdf documentation [DOCDIR] --psdir=DIR ps documentation [DOCDIR] --plugindir=DIR Gedit plugin files [LIBDIR/gedit-2/plugins] ...
so that users would be able to pass in --plugindir=... to the configure script.
How can I do this?
If I'm correct those paths are set in the share/autoconf/autoconf/general.m4 file. The list is hardcoded so it is difficult to insert things in the list. You can add extra help information using the macro AS_HELP_STRING.
There are some examples that add a plugindir, for example in gstreamer, gimp, but those don't have a configurable plugin directory.