Re: Not distributing README-release automatically.

[Mathieu Lirzin]

Hello Jim,

Jim Meyering <address@hidden> writes:

> On Sun, Mar 5, 2017 at 8:12 AM, Mathieu Lirzin <address@hidden> wrote:
>>
>> I have been using 'readme-release' module and was surprised to discover
>> that the "README-release" file was automatically distributed without any
>> mention in the "module/readme-release" file.
>>
>> After some digging I have discovered that all files from the "top"
>> directory are automatically added to EXTRA_DIST.  Here is a snippet from
>> bootstrap that could be removed:
>>
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>>       if test -n "$top_files"; then
>>         sed_prepend_topdir='s,^,$(top_srcdir)/,'
>>         echo "EXTRA_DIST += "`echo "$top_files" | sed -e 
>> "$sed_prepend_topdir"`
>>         echo
>>       fi
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>>
>> IMO we should move the responsability of distributing "top/*" files to
>> the module definition instead, and not distributing "README-release"
>> automatically (like what is done in Coreutils).
>>
>> What do people think?
>
> Regarding README-release, I'm leery of requiring each
> top-file-specifying module writer to remember to add each such file to
> EXTRA_DIST. An alternative, probably-smaller change may be to add some
> attribute by which a module with such a file could opt out of that
> default.

That would be fine with me.  However I am not sure this additional logic
would be smaller (or simpler), since IIUC there is currently only 3
top-file-specifying modules:

  - maintainer-makefile
  - readme-release
  - gnumakefile

Do I overlook something?

Thanks.

-- 
Mathieu Lirzin
GPG: F2A3 8D7E EB2B 6640 5761  070D 0ADE E100 9460 4D37