Re: [Bug-gsl] autogen.sh overwrites file INSTALL

[Peter Johansson]

Hello,

[adding automake; replies can drop bug-gsl]

This is

http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gsl/2010-06/msg00002.html

On 6/13/10 4:16 PM, Brian Gough wrote:
> At Thu, 10 Jun 2010 22:16:58 -0400,
> Peter Johansson wrote:
>    
> > AFAIK there is no option in Automake to '--install' only some files and
> > not, e.g., `INSTALL'. The simplest solution, IMVHO, would be to rename
> > the file INSTALL and distribute both this renamed file together with the
> > generic INSTALL. But it's likely that the Automake people have a better
> > solution.
> >      
> I agree, it's a minor annoyance that it get overwritten.  I've been
> leaving it alone because there are existing references to the GSL
> specific info in INSTALL out there which can't be changed (e.g. in the
> printed manual).  I think the best thing would be for automake to
> handle the INSTALL file in a different way (for example, only updating
> the generic part), the generic instructions aren't always that useful
> by themselves.
>
>    
Perhaps someone with more experience with Automake knows some trick to 
achieve what we want.

The issue is in brief that `autoreconf --force' overwrites the GSL's own 
INSTALL file. Is there a way to avoid that to happen? Avoid the --force 
option is sub-optimal because that adds the risk that files provided by 
automake is not updated accordingly. That has happened before that 
`install-sh' was not updated and the old `install-sh' was not compatible 
with the make rules generated by the new Automake
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/2009-09/msg00051.html

Is there a way to tell automake to ignore the INSTALL file, or is there 
another way to achieve similar thing.

Thank you,
Peter