Recently the question of why we require people to macroize their paths in spec files (and by extension, patch build scripts to use the expansion of our macros instead of hardcoded values) came up. FPC only knew of one, not so great reason: if the paths were to change, for instance a change in the FHS, then spec files that use macros (in both the spec file and the expansion of those macros is used in the upstream build scripts) would only need a rebuild to pick up th new paths.

I then opened this ticket: https://fedorahosted.org/fpc/ticket/67 for FPC to consider dropping using the directories as a requirement.

As recorded in the comments, some people have stepped forward with the additional rationale that third-parties rebuilding our packages may wish to install their rebuilds into a separate directory structure for their own tracking purposes. Having directory paths in macros allow them to do that by redefining %{_prefix}, %{_sharedstatedir}, and a handful of other toplevel directory macros. If we allowed hardcoding of directories, then they'd have to edit the spec file to achieve the same goal.

If people have additional reasons that macroizing all directory paths make sense, please let us know (here or as a comment in the ticket). Then FPC can decide whether to relax this rule or update the rule with information about why we have it in place.

Thanks, -Toshio