Re: [PATCH 3/7] iconv_open: reduce not-trivial repetition of file-list

[Bruno Haible]

Hi Gary,

> By itself, this patch reduces unnecessary repetition, but also sets up
> a later patch in this series to not need to make yet another copy of
> the listed headers.
> 
> * modules/iconv_open (iconv_headers): New make macro to hold list of
> iconv header files.
> (BUILT_SOURCES, MAINTAINERCLEANFILES, EXTRA_DIST): Use it instead of
> multiple hard-coded copies.

I don't see what this patch is supposed to do. This, together with the line

  nodist_include_HEADERS += $(iconv_headers)

from [PATCH 5/7], ought to be a no-op. These 5 .h files are private header
files of the module; they are not meant to be installed by 'make install'.

I agree that it's good to modify the module descriptions in a way that
distinguishes header files that need to be installed from private header
files - since it would be too hacky if gnulib-tool or libposix/Makefile.am
would contain a heuristic for this. But the default should be the private
header file. Additional Makefile.am statements should be needed for the
public, installed header files.

In summary, this module does not need modifications.

Additionally, this patch would introduce a pitfall: it would be easy to think
that adding a file name to $(iconv_headers) is enough, and forget about
MOSTLYCLEANFILES.

Bruno