Re: Getting srcdir in script executed using m4_esyscmd in AC_INIT

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Tue, 5 Jan 2021, Zack Weinberg wrote:
> > Something I found which surprised me is that Automake has added a GNU
> > COPYING file to my non-GNU non-GPL package.  Once the file appeared in
> > the source directory, it seems that it continued to be used and
> > included in spite of the Automake options provided.
> >
> > While I see more detail sprinkled around the generated files, it seems
> > that this COPYING file may be the biggest issue.
>
> Hmm.  If you remove COPYING, make sure that you have `foreign` in
> either `AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS` or the options list passed to
> `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE`, and then re-run automake --add-missing, does
> COPYING come back?  My understanding is that automake --add-missing is
> supposed to install a copy of the GPL *only if* it's in `gnu` mode and
> can't find any other statement of licensing.

The COPYING file did not come back.  I now notice that an INSTALL file 
was added as well.

As far as I am aware, at no point were the Automake options not 
expressed in some way (via configure.ac or Makefile.am) but I used 
Autotools automatic maintenance after editing files (via make) and 
perhaps they were added during a transition point.

Regardless, updating a project to use the recommended AC_INT strategy 
is not without some danger since it is more rigid than the previous 
shell-variable based approach.  This is particularly the case for the 
project version and how the project version is applied when creating 
the tarball.

Bob
--
Bob Friesenhahn
bfriesen@simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/
Public Key,     http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/public-key.txt