Re: should an empty "pkgdata_DATA" cause creation of $(pkgdatadir) by "make install"?

[Robert Boehne]

 On 03/13/12 07:30, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
> [CC:ing Ralf, as I'd like to hear his opinion here]
>
> Reference:
>   <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2012-03/msg00078.html>
>
> On 03/13/2012 01:14 PM, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
> > Now that I think about it, I'm not sure whether it was done "by design" from
> > the beginning,
> And I also missed Ralf's answer here:
>
>   <http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnu.gsasl.general/52>
>
> So we're in a sort of a tie here: some users think that the current Automake
> behaviour is a feature (and I lean toward that position), other ones (with
> Ralf among them, apparently) believe it's a bug.  Hmmm.  What now?
>
> Regards,
>    Stefano

I would agree with the "feature" camp.  Users should be able to create  
an empty $(pkgdatadir) - suppose that empty directory is populated by 
other methods.  They should also be able to not create $(pkgdatadir) as 
well as a non-empty $(pkgdatadir).

IMHO - whether this was by design or by accident isn't important.  
What's more important is that the behavior is intuitive, and this 
behavior (to me) is intuitive.

Robert Boehne