I think you were on the right track adding a method to provide the executable name at runtime, but the bin_dir function returns the paths that are necessary to add to the $PATH in order to find the executable, meaning for a system install it should be empty since it will already be in $PATH. This is kind of annoying but it is what you want, if the exe is already in the $PATH you don't want to be adding it again in a different order! So as written, the exe_file function won't ever work for a system install.
The usual way that I go about this is when there is an executable which might be called something different is to probe for the name at install time and store it in the runtime_prop's as command (this is actually the reserved property name for this, although I don't think any of the plugins actually use it). Alien::gmake, which provides Gnu make as either make or gmake is a good example, although it is also doing a lot of other things so it might not be the most readable example.
robrwo
commented
5 years ago
I think this will resolve #2.
I think you were on the right track adding a method to provide the executable name at runtime, but the
bin_dirfunction returns the paths that are necessary to add to the$PATHin order to find the executable, meaning for a system install it should be empty since it will already be in$PATH. This is kind of annoying but it is what you want, if the exe is already in the$PATHyou don't want to be adding it again in a different order! So as written, theexe_filefunction won't ever work for a system install.The usual way that I go about this is when there is an executable which might be called something different is to probe for the name at install time and store it in the runtime_prop's as
command(this is actually the reserved property name for this, although I don't think any of the plugins actually use it).Alien::gmake, which provides Gnu make as eithermakeorgmakeis a good example, although it is also doing a lot of other things so it might not be the most readable example.