- document a few additional functions

doc/latex/install-lib.tex

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-%% $Id: install-lib.tex,v 1.1 2004/05/22 10:41:06 michel-schinz Exp $
+%% $Id: install-lib.tex,v 1.2 2004/06/13 17:51:15 michel-schinz Exp $
 
 %% TODO
 %% - clean up permissions mess
@@ -617,6 +617,35 @@ contents is deleted.
 \end{enumerate}
 \end{example}
 
+\subsubsection{Miscellaneous}
+\label{sec:misc}
+
+A few functions which are not specifically related to installation are
+provided, as they can sometimes be useful when writing installation
+scripts. They are documented below.
+
+\vspace{1em}
+\definep{parent-directory}{dir}%
+Returns the parent directory of \param{dir}. Notice that a trailing
+slash is always ignored by this function, so that the parent directory
+of both \file{/tmp/dir} and \file{/tmp/dir/} is \file{/tmp/}.
+
+\vspace{1em}
+\definep{create-directory\&parents}{dir}%
+Similar to scsh's \ident{create-directory}, but also create all parent
+directories which do not exist yet.
+
+\vspace{1em}
+\definep{relative-file-name}{fname [dir]}%
+Return the name of file \param{fname} relative to \param{dir}, which
+defaults to the current directory.
+
+\vspace{1em}
+\definep{paths->file-name}{path ...}%
+Similar to scsh's \ident{path-list->file-name} except that all
+arguments are taken to form the final path. This function has no
+equivalent for \ident{path-list->file-name}'s optional argument.
+
 \subsection{Packages containing C code (for shared libraries)}
 
 Packages containing C code are more challenging to write, since all