Re: [Bug-gnulib] serial numbers in .m4 files: are they still useful?

[Bruno Haible]

Jim Meyering wrote:
> In gnulib and coreutils, we're considering getting rid of the
> serial number line in each .m4 file.

For files which are frequently copied from one package to another, I find
these serial numbers quite useful: For developers who don't know where
the master source and CVS can be found, it easily answers the question
which version of the .m4 files to prefer in a new release.

In similar situations, when dealing with files like "mkinstalldirs" that
didn't have a serial number in them, it was a real pain for me to detect
where the master source was and which version was to be considered
preferrable.

Bruno