[Libusbx-devel] "make distcheck" fails (Re: libusbx v1.0.9-rc4 is now available)

[Pete Batard]

On 2012.03.30 09:04, Ludovic Rousseau wrote:
> "make distcheck" fails with:
> [...]
> ERROR: files left in build directory after distclean:
> ./ChangeLog
> make[1]: *** [distcleancheck] Error 1
> make: *** [distcheck] Error 1
>
>
> The problem is that ChangeLog is a special file known and managed by
> automake [1].

Well, I think the problem really is that we have the following in 
Makefile.in:

ChangeLog:
   git --git-dir $(top_srcdir)/.git log > ChangeLog || touch ChangeLog

dist-hook: ChangeLog

Currently, my view of maintaining a ChangeLog is that it seems fairly 
unnecessary. First of all, it currently adds ~40KB (compressed, 134 KB 
uncompressed) to our archives, and unless people don't have an internet 
connection, all the information we put there can easily be retrieved 
from gitweb (and moreover, with a much better presentation and features).

My currently plan would be to either drop the ChangeLog altogether, 
which we can do with AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign]), or, better, just add a 
static one with a line that says:
"Please visit 
http://libusbx.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=libusbx/libusbx;a=summary 
for the latest changes"

All in all, it really all seems to boil down to: Do we want to care 
about people who may not have an internet connection to access gitweb 
(or people who prefer parsing a 134 KB text file over a web UI with 
search), and add 40 KB extra to our archives by duplicating something 
that is available elsewhere and that will require additional maintenance?
Or do we want to do something a bit more pragmatic here?

Regards,

/Pete