Re: Infinite loop on make dist

[Eric Blake]

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According to Stepan Kasal on 6/18/2008 9:50 PM:
| Hello,
|   when I unpack autoconf-2.62.tar.lzma and do
|
| cd autoconf-2.62
| mkdir build
| cd build
| ../configure && make dist
|
| I get into an infinite loop:
|
| INFO: running autoreconf for new version string: UNKNOWN

This points to a missing .tarball-version file.  It may also have been
fixed in gnulib recently, although I haven't yet ported this commit to
autoconf:
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=gnulib.git;a=commitdiff;h=2b2986f

At any rate, the inability to run 'make dist' on a tarball (rather than
VCS) tree represents a bug.  You mention a VPATH build; does 'make dist'
in an in-tree setup also infloop?  Does this gnulib patch fix matters for
a VPATH build?

|
| In connection with this, I'd like to ask why is GNUmakefile
| distributed?

Because it is useful for more than just the maintainer.  If you try to do
an in-place build with GNU make but forgot to run configure (and that is
common with people used to being able to run 'make' without 'configure' in
projects like git or the Linux kernel), then the presence of GNUmakefile
gives the user a nice informative message, rather than a cryptic error.

|
| I always thought the special targets provided there are of any use
| only for developers.  For the purpose of building and installing
| utoconf, Gnu make should be treated as any other make implementation.

Autoconf does not require GNU make to be built (or if it does, that is a
bug); rather, we merely take advantage of its features if it is present.

- --
Don't work too hard, make some time for fun as well!

Eric Blake             address@hidden
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