GNU autotooling, where to install shell functions?

Question

I have a tiny project that configures and installs some shell scripts using GNU autotools.

Now, the scripts will have to source a common file containing some shell functions.

Where should this file be installed by make install?

According to "Variables for Installation Directories", libexecdir is for executable files (the file containing the shell functions is not an executable in itself) and datadir is for architecture-independent data (this file depends on the architecture).

Is there any precedent for using any of these two paths (or any other installation path) for installing a file containing only shell functions? These functions are not meant to be used separately at the moment.

Answer 1

Your functions to be installed are in the context of your shell.
So store them there: ~/.bash_functions

Every time your shell loads, it loads commands, ~/.bashrc, and even aliases, ~/.bash_aliases. These are shell scripts which simply add commands to the shell PATH variable or set aliases. Shell scripts which define functions, to follow suit, should be defined here as well.

Then append a line to your .profile or .bashrc to ensure they are loaded for your terminal or just at the beginning of your shell scripts which depend on them:

if [ -f ~/.bash_functions ]; then
    . ~/.bash_functions
fi

Append functions to the file as desired:

#!/bin/bash
# ~/.bash_functions file
function_one () {
    echo "hi"
}
function_two() {
...