new Library Infrastructure spec.

[Sven Panne]

Simon Marlow wrote:
> This was a conscious decision - making install-location-neutral binary
> distributions is hard in general, and not always possible.  GHC goes to
> some lengths to support it.  Most other packaging systems do *not*
> support this (eg. neither RPM nor BSD ports do). [...]

I don't know about BSD ports, but RPM definitely supports relocatable
packages, see e.g.:

    http://www.rpm.org/max-rpm/ch-rpm-reloc.html

The problem is that most .spec writers (including me :-) don't take the
trouble to make a package relocatable. I'm quite sure that we could e.g.
make all our fptools stuff (ghc, alex, happy, ...) relocatable, but at
least for me this has not a high priority. I'd be happy if somebody takes
the time, though... :-)

Cheers,
    S.