keep empty directories, which will be populated when you first run the program

[geeohgeegeeoh]

How do I stop my attempt at a .rb formula from deleting empty directories but still appear empty, while being "valid" for mapping the link farm?

I did touch #{prefix}/var/db/<pkg>/.keep which prevented the rmdir, but the logic for mapping the dir didn't see it as populated and didn't do the symlink farm

[carlocab]

Try pointing the formula to var/"db"/name instead of prefix/"var/db"/name (if your formula has a configure script this is usually an option like --localstatedir or similar), and then do

(var/"db"/name).mkpath

in post_install.

[geeohgeegeeoh]

produces an error:

configure: error: expected an absolute directory name for --localstatedir: var

(its the OpenBSD coders use of configure through an autogen.sh script)

[carlocab]

var/"db"/name is a Pathname that refers to an absolute path. You need to interpolate it to substitute the value.

[geeohgeegeeoh]

Many thanks. It is as you point out a two-part problem.

in the post_install, The (var/"db"/name).mkpath worked in the external /usr/local/ path.

Once I fixed the main body def to run ./configure with the interpolated external path, things worked fine.