Re: Hidden files in autoconf 2.70 distribution?

[Zack Weinberg]

On Wed, Dec 9, 2020 at 9:18 AM Bob Friesenhahn
<bfriesen@simple.dallas.tx.us> wrote:
> On Tue, 8 Dec 2020, Zack Weinberg wrote:
> >
> > Yes, that’s intentional. Those files record information copied out of the
> > git history. See build-aux/git-version-gen and maint.mk.
>
> I don't recall seeing "hidden" files in a GNU package (or really any
> tarball distribution) before.  It seems like the GNU coding standards
> should be addressing such things.
>
> The files appeared in autoconf-2.69c and were not in autoconf-2.69b.

This conversation should happen on the Gnulib mailing list; both
git-version-gen and maint.mk are maintained there.  I have no
particular opinion about whether it is appropriate to use dot-files
for this purpose.

(Context that got trimmed off the top: Bob is concerned about the
files named ".prev-version", ".version", and ".tarball-version" in the
autoconf 2.70 release tarball.)

zw