customizing file layout, urlbase, and embedded paths

[Rob Browning]

I'm working on a trial Debian package for 2.17.4, and Debian has some
requirements for the placement of files (a la the FHS), and the Debian
package wants to place bugzilla as http://host/bugzilla.

As a result, in the previous packaging of 2.16.3, the Debian diff
contains many changes like these:

  -use lib ".";
  +use lib '/usr/share/bugzilla/lib';

  -use lib qw(.);
  +use lib '/usr/share/bugzilla/lib/';

  -  open(PMAIL, "-|") or exec('./processmail', $id);
  +  open(PMAIL, "-|") or exec('/usr/share/bugzilla/lib/processmail', $id);

  -  if (open(COMMENTS, "<data/comments")) {
  +  if (open(COMMENTS, "</var/lib/bugzilla/data/comments")) {

  -  <link href="css/buglist.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
  +  <link href="/bugzilla/css/buglist.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" >


So I'm wondering

  1) if there's an easier way to handle these changes given the
     current bugzilla infrastructure.  I see urlbase, but didn't know
     how conscientiously that was being used.

  2) if any thought has been given to how you might want to support
     varying install locations (if you want to support them at all).

I ask the latter question because if you do have particular changes in
mind, we may well be able to reorient our Debian patches along those
lines, and possibly come up with something suitable for incorporation
upstream.

Thanks

-- 
Rob Browning
rlb @defaultvalue.org and @debian.org; previously @cs.utexas.edu
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