Re: GNUmakefile: git-version-gen, maintainer-check, install

[Bruno Haible]

Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> This whole issue is getting more and more abstruse, ever since it
> was decided that the version should contain the git string, but at
> the same time autoconf should not rerun upon each version string
> change.

I agree that more thought needs to be put into solving this issue.

> In the medium to long run, Autoconf should be changed to not depend
> at autoconf run time upon a volatile version string.  For example,
> 
>   AC_VERSION_STRING_FILE([.version])
> 
> could have semantics so that .version is read each time configure
> is run.  That would mean that the configure script itself doesn't
> contain the version string

That is only the first half of the solution. The other half is that the
source files and Makefiles must stop using VERSION and PACKAGE_VERSION.
Otherwise when the .version file changes, the change needs to be propagated
into config.h, and when config.h is changed, the world is recompiled.
Developers don't want this.

More thoughts at
  http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2008-07/msg00102.html

Bruno