Re: configure in MAINTAINERCLEANFILES?!?

[Peter Eisentraut]

Akim Demaille writes:

> >>>>> "Peter" == Peter Eisentraut <address@hidden> writes:
>
> Peter> Could you please remove 'configure' from MAINTAINERCLEANFILES?
> Peter> This file is under CVS control.
>
> OK.
>
> Peter> The GNU Makefile Conventions don't allow this behaviour either.
>
> I don't get this.

The GNU standards say

| `maintainer-clean'
|      Delete almost everything from the current directory that can be
|      reconstructed with this Makefile.  This typically includes
|      everything deleted by `distclean', plus more: C source files
|      produced by Bison, tags tables, Info files, and so on.
|
|      The reason we say "almost everything" is that running the command
|      `make maintainer-clean' should not delete `configure' even if
|      `configure' can be remade using a rule in the Makefile.  More
|      generally, `make maintainer-clean' should not delete anything that
|      needs to exist in order to run `configure' and then begin to build
|      the program.  This is the only exception; `maintainer-clean' should
|      delete everything else that can be rebuilt.

So if you try to comply with those standards then at least 'configure',
Makefile.in's, install-sh, mkinstalldirs, etc. should not be cleaned.

It could certainly be useful to be able to remove all the files added by
automake in one run, but then you ought to have a different name for the
target.  (And then you should be consistent about removing all or none,
not only some Makefile.in's.)

Also, I think removing files that are checked into CVS by a standard
makefile target is a pretty odd practice.

In any case, 'configure' should never be removed because it's otherwise
impossible to bootstrap the Autoconf package.

-- 
Peter Eisentraut   address@hidden