Hi,

would you please add the possibility to specify the directory which contains the language files and call_in.wav in the options? Or can you add /usr/local/share/skype to the list of paths to check?

FreeBSD uses /usr/local (default value, overideable by the user) for 3rd party software. /usr/share is for the base system and it's discouraged to install files there.

The FreeBSD port doesn't install the languages and the call_in.wav file at the moment because of this.

Bye,
Alexander.

Sure. This probably needs a number of ways to be more flexible:
1) hardcode some other paths like /usr/local/share/skype
2) make it configurable in Options? May be perceived as too geeky by some users - you don't change this too often but can shoot yourself in the foot.
3) also look in current directory where the binary was lauched from (if you just grabbed and unzipped the archive without installing anything).

Another way would be this:

Add a command line option to the Skype binary that tells it where the data directory is located. Then, don't have the user run the Skype binary directly, but install a wrapper script that runs the binary, passing the right path. Such as:

#!/bin/sh
/usr/local/bin/skype-bin --data-path /usr/local/share/skype

The Skype distribution would then include a default script that passes "--data-path /usr/share/skype". The FreeBSD port would replace the script with its own version.

This is pretty much the way e.g. Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird do it. Except that they use an environment variable (something like MOZILLA_HOME) instead of a command line option. The approach is quite nice IMHO as it keeps the binary 100% flexible and allows custom installers to put the data files wherever they like. If you want to, you could even include another script that is run when the distribution is just untarred without being installed and that tells Skype to look in the local directory. That would be beneficial to non-FreeBSD users as well.

- Bartosz

I would implement this functionality in the "skype" binary. If it's called without such an option, the default paths (whatever they may be) are searched, else the specific path is used. If a distribution doesn't uses the default paths, it can rename the binary to skype-whatever and provide a wrapper on their own.

Bye,
Alexander.

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