automake: The Two Parts of Install

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1 12.2 The Two Parts of Install
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1 Automake generates separate ‘install-data’ and ‘install-exec’ rules, in
1 case the installer is installing on multiple machines that share
1 directory structure—these targets allow the machine-independent parts to
1 be installed only once.  ‘install-exec’ installs platform-dependent
1 files, and ‘install-data’ installs platform-independent files.  The
1 ‘install’ target depends on both of these targets.  While Automake tries
1 to automatically segregate objects into the correct category, the
1 ‘Makefile.am’ author is, in the end, responsible for making sure this is
1 done correctly.
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1    Variables using the standard directory prefixes ‘data’, ‘info’,
1 ‘man’, ‘include’, ‘oldinclude’, ‘pkgdata’, or ‘pkginclude’ are installed
1 by ‘install-data’.
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1    Variables using the standard directory prefixes ‘bin’, ‘sbin’,
1 ‘libexec’, ‘sysconf’, ‘localstate’, ‘lib’, or ‘pkglib’ are installed by
1 ‘install-exec’.
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1    For instance, ‘data_DATA’ files are installed by ‘install-data’,
1 while ‘bin_PROGRAMS’ files are installed by ‘install-exec’.
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1    Any variable using a user-defined directory prefix with ‘exec’ in the
1 name (e.g., ‘myexecbin_PROGRAMS’) is installed by ‘install-exec’.  All
1 other user-defined prefixes are installed by ‘install-data’.
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