I use ns-2.28 at university to develop c++ components. The actual path (splitted) of ns it's difficult to use. I think it should be all-in-one into /opt/ns-2.28, making it easy to find apps, common, etc. directories. It whould be much easier to develop in this way. Just think: if I've to add an agent, or a packet classifier, i've to add source file i've written to ns core...how can i do it now? (think that i've to link it with ./configure and compile it). So it should compile and install into /opt/ns-2.28 tree and *should not* clean source...just move all from ${WORKDIR} to ${INSTALLDIR}. (Maybe adding a USE flag "develop" that use this installation method could be even much better?) Another thing, I think that net-devel tree would be more appropriate for ns and some others...but this is just an opinion :) Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. 2. 3.
From doing just a little stuff with NS myself (I put it into the tree for a networking course @ uni, so I didn't have to go to the labs to use OPNET in windows), I found that if I was developing custom components, it was more useful just to have the entire source in my homedir as it's shipped by upstream. And just use the ebuild to provide a quick install for those that only need to simulate, not modify.
I haven't heard back from you, so I'm closing this. I still maintain that installing the complete source under /opt is wrong, because the user should not have permissions to put stuff into /opt.
