predict and audit "make install"

[John Reiser <jreiser at BitWagon dot com>]

When I installed binutils-2.10.1 last week, at the point of "make install"
I was disappointed that I could not predict which files would be new
or modified, their ownership and access permissions, how much disk
space would be needed, or which files to backup in order to be able to
"roll back" the installation.  I found the output of "make -n install"
to be unworkably complex.

I'm looking for a two-step install:
  1.  Create a list of what to do, but do not do any of it yet.
  2.  Do it.
The list should be a shell script that is as concrete, explicit,
and literal as possible.
  allowed:
     cp, mv, ln, mkdir, chmod, chown, chgrp, chattr
  not allowed:
     cd, chdir; filename metacharacters (* ? [])
     conditionals (if, case, test), ||, &&, loops (for, while)
     shell procedures, subshells, eval, exec, expr, arithmetic
     environment variables, shell variables, $n variables
     shell output collection $( ... ) or backquote ` ... `
  deprecated:
     cp a b /usr/local/bin
  prefered:
     cp a /usr/local/bin/a
     cp b /usr/local/bin/b

Then I will use textual search or simple shell scripts after step 1,
but before step 2.  What exists along these lines?

-- 
John Reiser, jreiser@BitWagon.com