Bourne shell function for adding things to linking, include, etc, paths.

cpath_env.sh

# "cpath_env $DIRECTORY" sets paths appropriately for making gcc+autoconf
# pick up C libraries installed with ./configure --prefix $DIRECTORY.

# example:

# cd /tmp
# tar xf ~/libfoo.tar.gz
# cd libfoo
# ./configure --prefix=$HOME/stuff
# make && make install
# cpath_env $HOME/stuff
# cd /tmp
# tar xf ~/thing-that-needs-libfoo.tar.gz
# cd thing-that-needs-libfoo
# make && make install
# thing-that-needs-libfoo

function cpath_env(){
    function extend_colon(){
        eval 'echo "${'$1':+:${'$1'}}"'
    }
    export PATH="$1/sbin:$1/bin$(extend_colon PATH)"
    export MANPATH="$1/share/man$(extend_colon MANPATH)"
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$1/lib$(extend_colon LD_LIBRARY_PATH)"
    export LIBRARY_PATH="$1/lib$(extend_colon LIBRARY_PATH)"
    export CPATH="$1/include$(extend_colon CPATH)"
    export C_INCLUDE_PATH="$1/include$(extend_colon C_INCLUDE_PATH)"
    export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$1/lib/pkgconfig$(extend_colon PKG_CONFIG_PATH)"
    export INFOPATH="$1/share/info$(extend_colon INFOPATH)"
    # Pity it isn't just locally scoped.
    unset -f extend_colon
}