Re: Not distributing README-release automatically.

[Mathieu Lirzin]

Jim Meyering <address@hidden> writes:

> On Tue, Mar 7, 2017 at 8:08 AM, Mathieu Lirzin <address@hidden> wrote:
>> 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?
>
> I hadn't counted, and expected more. Given there are only three,
> adding an 'EXTRA_DIST += ...' in two of the three seems reasonable. Do
> you feel like writing the patch?

Yes, I will do that.

Thank you.

-- 
Mathieu Lirzin
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