Re: Automake and Texinfo: clean the info or pdf file

[Eric Blake]

On 09/03/2010 11:07 AM, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
> > >     Why the Makefile is removed when I call the distclean target?
> Because it is generated by configure

And more particularly, because Makefile is machine-dependent and must 
NOT be part of a tarball.  Remember, 'make distclean' is the process to 
take you back to the state of the tarball.

> > So why we choose to keep the *.info files if they are generated
> > files?
> Because they require a maintainer-only, unportable tool to be
> generated.  And since they do not depend on the architecture or
> configuration of the system were they will be installed, the best
> policy is to distribute them in their already-processed form.

Indeed, since *.info files are machine-invariant, it is a courtesy to 
the user to let them use a pre-built version rather than requiring that 
they have the same maintainer-only tools for generating them.

The same argument goes for *.c files generated from *.y grammars - the 
*.c file may be generated, but it is machine-independent, therefore, it 
makes sense to distribute it pre-built in the tarball so that users need 
not have flex and bison available.

--
Eric Blake   address@hidden    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org