Q: what files to version control in an autoconf-ed project?

[Magnus Therning]

On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 7:47 PM, Jeremy Henty<onepoint at starurchin.org> wrote:
>
> Question: if your C/C++  project is built with autoconf/automake etc.,
> which files should you put under version control?
>
> Answer  (or so  I  thought): run  "make  maintainer-clean" and  commit
> everything  that is  left.  But  that still  leaves the  configure and
> Makefile.in  files even though  they are  generated from  other files.
> Should they be under version control or not?
>
> If I delete just the configure script then autoconf regenerates it, so
> I guess it's  OK not to version control  configure and tell developers
> to run  autoconf.  Contrariwise, if  I delete configure *and*  all the
> Makefile.in files,  then autoconf  barfs, but autoreconf  can complete
> the build.   So, should  I refuse to  version control  the Makefile.in
> files  and   tell  my  (currently  hypothetical)   developers  to  run
> autoreconf?
>
> AFAICT most  projects don't version  control the configure  script and
> tell developers to run autoconf  (or some script that wraps autoconf).
> Is that the way to go?

These are the files I tend to check in in Gnome-related stuff:

AUTHORS
Makefile.am
README
autogen.sh
ChangeLog
NEWS
TODO
configure.ac

You might want a few other files depending on your usage of autoconf
and libtool, but I don't have stuff around that does anything other
than basic stuff.  If you want some more info take a loot at what
files are checked into some large project, Gnome should have  few to
choose between.

/M

-- 
Magnus Therning                        (OpenPGP: 0xAB4DFBA4)
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